The East Africa Oligocene Intertrappean Beds: Regional Distribution, Depositional Environments and Afro/Arabian Mammal Dispersals

The East Africa Oligocene Intertrappean Beds: Regional Distribution, Depositional Environments and Afro/Arabian Mammal Dispersals

Author: 
Abbate, Ernesto
Publisher: 
Elsevier
Date published: 
2014
Record type: 
Region: 
Responsibility: 
Bruni, Piero, jt. author
Ferretti, Marco Peter, jt. author
Delmer, Cyrille, jt. author
Journal Title: 
Journal of African Earth Sciences
Source: 
Journal of African Earth Sciences, Vol 99, Part 2,November 2014, pp. 463-489
Abstract: 

The extensive outpouring of the Oligocene Trap basalts over eastern Africa and western Arabia was interrupted by a period of quiescence marked by the deposition of terrestrial sediments. These so-called intertrappean beds are often lignitiferous and yield recurrent floras and faunas, sometimes represented by endemic mammals. We intended to highlight the peculiar features of these sedimentary intercalations using a large-scale approach including eastern Africa and the western Arabian peninsula. Starting from a new mapping in the Eritrean highland, the intertrappean beds resulted a continuous level that was a few tens of meters thick and traceable for some tens of kilometers. They consist of fluvial red, green and gray mudstones and siltstones with subordinate channelized pebbly sandstones, and lignite seams. Two new 40Ar-39Ar datings constraint the age of the intertrappean beds between 29.0 Ma and 23.6 Ma. The outcrops near Mendefera have yielded the remains of two proboscidean families, the Deinotheriidae and the Gomphoteriidae.

Language: 

CITATION: Abbate, Ernesto. The East Africa Oligocene Intertrappean Beds: Regional Distribution, Depositional Environments and Afro/Arabian Mammal Dispersals . : Elsevier , 2014. Journal of African Earth Sciences, Vol 99, Part 2,November 2014, pp. 463-489 - Available at: https://library.au.int/east-africa-oligocene-intertrappean-beds-regional-distribution-depositional-environments-and