Delvaux, D. 2001. ‘Tectonic and paleostress evolution of the Tanganyika-Rukwa-Malawi rift segment, East African Rift System’. P.A. Ziegler, W. Cavazza and A.H.F. Robertson and S. Crasquin-Soleau (eds), Mém. Mus. Natn. Hist. nat 186, special issue : Peri-Tethys Memoir 6: PeriTethyan Rift/Wrench Basins and Passive Margins. : 545-567. Paris.  (PR).

Article in a scientific Journal / Article in a Journal

Fault systems of the Tanganyika-Rukwa-Malawi (TRM) segment of the East African Rift System (EARS) show evidence of repeated reactivation since the Palaeoproterozoic, controlling successive stages of sedimentary basin formation. During the last decade, important advances in understanding geological and geophysical processes affecting this region allow a new approach to the geodynamic evolution of this segment of the EARS. The evolution of the basement of the TRM rift segment started with the development of the NW-SE trending Palaeo proterozoic Ubende shear belt along the western margin of the Archean Tanzanian craton. This belt was repeatedly reactivated by left-lateral movements in retrograde greenschist facies during the Meso- and Neoproterozoic. A Permo-Triassic (Karoo) rift system developed in Late Carboniferous-Middle Triassic times, in response to compressional and transpressional deformations in east-central Africa. This intraplate deformation may have been induced by stress transmission through continental lithosphere over long distances from both the southern and the northern (Neo-Tethys) margins of the Gondwana continent. Rifting was probably minor during the Late Jurassic-Cretaceous in the TRM zone, but the existence of an Early Tertiary rifting stage is highlighted. The Late Cainozoic period of rifting started 89 Ma ago by semi-radial extension in the Rukwa-Malawi area. Since the middle Pleistocene, compressional intraplate stresses interfere with the evolution of the Late Cainozoic rift system. Volcanism and climatic fluctuations are, besides tectonism, additional factors that influence the sedimentary infill of the TRM rift basins.

• IGCP400 - Geodynamics of Continental Rifting
• Tectonique active et risques naturels des rifts continentaux