Stability of the Upper Nile drainage network (Ethiopia) deduced from (U-Th)/He thermochronometry:: implications for uplift and erosion of the Afar plume dome

One of the best places to investigate the role of a mantle plume in creating topography at the onset of continental breakup is the Ethiopian volcanic province since it is the youngest and best preserved case of a large igneous province dissected by a system of rifts. In the center of the volcanic province, the northwestern Ethiopian plateau which surrounds the Afar depression displays the highest topography and experienced more than I km of surface uplift. Because hydrology and physiography are genetically linked, understanding the long-term evolution of these upper basins has implications regarding the morphotectonic evolution of the plateau as well as the paleo-hydrological evolution of the whole Nile River. We report the results of a combined thermochronological and morphological study aimed at understanding the long-term stability of the upper Blue Nile drainage network. Apatite and titanite He ages have been determined for crystalline basement samples collected below the lava pile, in various key sites of the drainage network. Titanite He ages, which range from 213 to 520 Ma, are in good agreement with published K-feldspar Ar-Ar data and most likely reflect post-Pan-African cooling of the Ethiopian basement. Apatite He ages, which range from 45 to 107 Ma, display a trend of decreasing age with increasing crustal depth in the Blue Nile gorge, which is interpreted as partial resetting of pre-existing ages due to basement burial because of the thick pile of flood lavas erupted 30 Ma ago. Simulations of apatite He age partial resetting suggest that erosion initiated in the Blue Nile canyon as early as 25-29 Ma ago, whereas erosion would have started after 11 Ma along the present retreat scarp. The early onset of erosion in the Blue Nile canyon suggests that: (i) volcanic and uplift-related tectonic divides represent long-lived (20-30 Myr) pre-breakup divides, and (ii) the elevated plateau physiography, which controls most of the present-day Nile hydrology, has existed since the Oligocene. We propose that the plateau represents the preserved part of a large uplifted dome, related to Afar plume impingement, and/or to massive underplating triggered by Oligocene continental flood basalt differentiation. In this case, the topographic development of the western Afar margin, which is related to extension and drift of the Arabian plate, would be mainly the result of the collapse of the Afar area from an initially elevated region. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.