A kinematic model for the development of the Afar Depression and its paleogeographic implications

Abstract The Afar Depression is a highly extended region of continental to transitional oceanic crust lying at the junction of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Ethiopian rifts. We analyze the evolution of the Afar crust using plate kinematics and published crustal models to constrain the temporal and volumetric evolution of the rift basin. Our reconstruction constrains the regional-scale initial 3D geometry and subsequent extension and is well calibrated at the onset of rifting (∼20 Ma) and from the time of earliest documented sea-floor spreading anomalies (∼6 Ma Red Sea; ∼10 Ma Gulf of Aden). It also suggests the Danakil block is a highly extended body, having undergone between ∼200% and ∼400% stretch. Syn-rift sedimentary and magmatic additions to the crust are taken from the literature. Our analysis reveals a discrepancy: either the base of the crust has not been properly imaged, or a (plume-related?) process has somehow caused bulk removal of crustal material since extension began. Inferring subsidence history from thermal modeling and flexural considerations, we conclude subsidence in Afar was virtually complete by Mid Pliocene time. Our analysis contradicts interpretations of late (post 3 Ma) large (∼2 km) subsidence of the Hadar area near the Ethiopian Plateau, suggesting paleoclimatic data record regional, not local, climate change. Tectonic reconstruction (supported by paleontologic and isotopic data) suggests that a land bridge connected Africa and Arabia, via Danakil, up to the Early to Middle Pliocene. The temporal constraints on land bridge and escarpment morphology constrain Afar paleogeography, climate, and faunal migration routes. These constraints (particularly the development of geographic isolation) are fundamentally important for models evaluating and interpreting biologic evolution in the Afar, including speciation and human origins.