Rift-Related Morphology of the Afar Depression

The Afar Depression is a subaerial triple junction between the Nubian, Somalian and Arabian Plates, the only place where the final stages of continental break-up can be observed on-land. In spite of the region being hot and inhospitable, scientists have carried out fundamental work in this unique geological setting over the last few decades. We have long-known that rifting began on large-scale border faults that now bound the Afar Depression but what role magma played in the development of this incipient ocean basin was not clear. However, in recent years, it has been revealed that repeated dike intrusions together with normal faulting accommodate extension producing a landscape dominated by spectacular fresh fault scarps and active volcanic edifices that have been created during episodic tectonic, volcano-tectonic and purely volcanic events. Observations from Ethiopia have fundamentally changed the way we think about continental break-up. The challenge now is to take what we have learned and apply it to the geological record of the rifted margins elsewhere on Earth.