Publications

PEER REVIEWED / Click Bonavia for details

Minniti, M., & F. Bonavia,1984. Copper-ore grade hydrothermal mineralization discovered in a seamount in the Tyrrhenian sea (Mediterranean): is the mineralization related to porphyry-copper or to base metal lodes? Marine Geology, 59, 271-282. Minniti, M., F. Bonavia, C. Dacquino, & G. Raspa, 1984. Distribution of Mn, Fe, Ni, Co, Cu in young sediments on the Palinuro seamount in the southeast Tyrrhenian sea, Marine Mining, 5 (3), 277-305. Bonavia, F., & W.H. MacLean, 1986. Geology and ore enrichment factors at Radiore mine, Quebec, Mineralium Deposita, 21 (2), 137-146. Beraki, W.H., F. Bonavia, T. Getachew, R. Schmerold, & T. Tarekegn, 1989. The Adola fold and thrust belt in Ethiopia: a re-examination with implications for Pan-African evolution, Geological Magazine, 126(6), 647-657. Boccaletti, M., A. Getaneh, & F. Bonavia, 1991. The Marda fault: a remnant of an incipient aborted rift in the Paleo-African Arabian Plate, J.Petroleum Geology, 14 (1), 79-92. Tolessa, S., F.Bonavia, M. Solomon, A. Haile-Meskel & E. Teferra, 1991. Structural pattern of the Pan-African around Moyale, southern Ethiopia, Precambrian Research, 52, 179-186. Balemwal, A., & F. Bonavia, 1991. Precambrian rock structure and late Pleistocene strikeslip tectonics around Mega (south Ethiopia), Journal of African Earth Sciences, 13, (3/4), 169-172. Morten, L., A.M. De Francesco, F. Bonavia, G. Haileselassie, G.M. Bargossi, & M. Bondi, 1992. A mantle xenolith locality from Sidamo region, southern Ethiopia, Mineralogical Magazine, 56, 422-425. Bonavia, F., & J. Chorowicz, 1992. Northward expulsion of the PanAfrican of NE Africa guided by a re-entrant zone in the Tanzania craton, Geology, 20, 1023-1026. Bonavia, F., V. Diella, & A. Ferrario, 1993. Precambrian podiform chromitites from Kenticha Hill, southern Ethiopia, Economic Geology, 88, 198-202.

Franco Bonavia

Publications

Bonavia, F., & J. Chorowicz, 1993. Neoproterozoic structures in the Mozambique Orogenic belt of southern Ethiopia, Precambrian Research, 62, 307-322. J. Chorowicz, B. Collet, F. Bonavia, & T. Korme, 1994. NW to NNWextension direction in the Ethiopian rift deduced from the orientation of large extensional structures and fault-slip analysis, Geological Society American Bulletin, 106, 1560-1570. Bonavia, F., J. Chorowicz, & B. Collet, 1995. Have wet and dry Precambrian crust controlled Cenozoic Trap volcanism in Arabia and East Africa? Geophysical Research Letters, 22, 2337-2340. MacLean, F. Bonavia, & G. Sanna, 1997. Argillite debris converted to bauxite in Sardinia, Italy, Mineralium Deposita, 32, 607-616. T. Korme, J. Chorowicz, B. Collet, & F. Bonavia,1997.Volcanic vents rooted on extension fractures and their geodynamic implications in the Ethiopian Rift, J. of Volc. & Geoth.l Res., 79, 205-222. J. Chorowicz, B. Collet, F. Bonavia, P. Mohr, J.F. Parrot, & T. Korme, 1998. The Tana Basin, Ethiopia: intra-plateau uplift, rifting, subsidence, Tectonophys., 295, 351-367. J. Chorowicz, B. Collet, F. Bonavia, & T. Korme, 1999. Left-lateral strike-slip tectonics and gravity induced individualisation of continental blocks in western Afar, Eclogae Geologicae Helveticae, 92, 149-158. B. Collet, H. Taud, J.F. Parrot, F. Bonavia, & J. Chorowicz, 2000. A new kinematic approach of the Danakil block by means of DEM representation, Tectonophys., 316, 343-357.

Franco Bonavia

Publications

[1]

HYDROTHERMAL MINERALIZATION Massive sulfides have been discovered dredging the Palinuro seamount in the Tyrrhenian sea, off the Calabrian coast, in Italy (map, Google Earth). Mineralization was discovered made of indurated sulfide crust, mixed with dark ooze of organic and volcanic origin, and reddish layers produced by oxidation. A dust-like precipitate was observed close to the mineralization by a submersible. No edifice resembling the black-smokers were identified. Microprobe analyses have revealed the presence of bismuthinite, stibnite, rutile, pyrite, barite and tennantite-tetrahedrite crystals. Well-formed quartz, twig-shaped native copper & sphalerite crystals were identified by other means. Fe-smectite, aragonite, calcite, feldspar and quartz minerals were found in ooze. Tennantite-tetrahedrite crystal mounting bisbuthinite crystal, both surrounded by needle-shaped stibnite crystals (photo Sentimenti & Tangerini , CERIVE).

Go Back

Franco Bonavia

Publications

[2]

GEOCHEMISTRY OF ENCRUSTATIONS AND MICRONODULES An offshore exploration campaign with the aim of identifying and evaluating the Fe-Mn bearing encrustations and micronodules discovered on the Palinuro seamount provided the means for constructing Mn, Fe, Ni, Co, Cu geochemical maps and interpret a complex metal history. Zoning supports the idea that encrustations and micronodules are of hydrothermal origin. The presence of ferromanganese minerals associated with low redox facies formed during the remobilization of previously deposited Mn mineral phases, thus diagenetic processes also played a significant role in the final deposition.

Go Back

Franco Bonavia

Publications

[3]
RADIORE CU-ZN MASSIVE SULPHIDE IN NORTHWESTERN QUEBEC A cut section of the ore deposit was mapped in detail (left figure) before being mined out in1980. The stratiform ore is interpreted a distal-type VMS lens, having a well-developed sedimentary structures, a chlorite-biotite alteration zone, and a significant tuff component in the rhyolite unit. Assuming the seawater-derived brines leached metals from the underlying rocks, precipitating them onto the seafloor, the metal enrichment factor was calculated. Enrichment factors (not to be confused with partitioning coefficients) are by-and-large controlled by (1) the efficiency of circulating brines in dissolving metals, and (2) efficiency of the precipitating mechanism at exit point. The geothermal system was mostly efficient in concentrating Cu, Cd, Zn, Au and Ag. There were difficulties in both solubility and precipitation of Bi, Sn, As, Co, Mo, whereas W, Cr, V, Mn, and Ni did not concentrate in the ore (right figure)

Go Back

Franco Bonavia

Publications

[4]

THE ADOLA FOLD AND THRUST BELT (AFTB), IN SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA

A north-south trending Neoproterozoic belt (AFTB), made of volcanic-sedimentary and ophiolite like rocks, overly gneiss and granitic gneiss, was found to be gold-bearing at Lega Dembi, Sakaro, Digati, and that tectonic structures controlled the distribution of Au-quartz veins. Detailed structural (Fig. A, left) and microfabrics (Fig. A, right) analysis show two thrusting events (D1, D5) and three folding phases (F2,F3,F4). The degree of metamorphism during deformational cycles reached the highest greenschist to medium amphibolites facies, and retrograded minerals formed near thrusts post-dating metamorphic peaks (Fig.B). Accepting an age of 103040Ma of the AFTB, the belt is postulated to be an immature island arc .

Left:: regional structural trends and sample localities. Right: quartz c-axis of Fe-Mn quartzites from
different localities, labeled 1 to 5. Stippled: pole-free areas. Synoptic diagram for fabric skeletons is labeled 6: principles axes of finite strain x>y>z; stretching lineation lstr and foliation Sm; sense of vorticity indicated by curved arrow.

Franco Bonavia

Publications

B
Figure (B): P-T history deduced from sample collected in five different areas, labeled a to d. Stability field of staurolite (broken line).

Mineral reactions (solid lines):

B: chlorite+muscovite+qtz = cordierite+ biotite+Al2SiO5+ H2O; C: muscovite+qtz = k feldspar+ Al2SiO5 ; D: partial anatexis of granitic material. Triple point: andalusite (And), kyanite (Ky) and sillimanite (Sill): solid line. Hatched area represent P-T conditions of dominant assemblages (inferred).

Go Back

Franco Bonavia

Publications

[5]

MARDA FAULT ZONE (MFZ) The MFZ is the main structural element in the Horn of Africa. Gravity anomalies suggest it to be a fracture extending from the Red Sea through Ethiopia and Somalia (Ogaden region) in the Indian Ocean. The MFZ is marked by the Wadi Sheebele river [see Landsat TM (Google Earth from 3016 km altitude) + SRTM + JAXA composite image, left figure]. Although evidence of its continuation beyond the Afar Depression remains speculative, the pre-drift restoration of Africa and Arabia shows a remarkable alignment with the Red Sea, supporting the interpretation that the MFZ is a deep-rooted structure.

Go Back

Franco Bonavia

Publications

[6]

B
MOZAMBIQUE OROGENIC BELT between Ethiopia and Kenya The regional structure shows north-trending, upright, doubly plunging, tight to isoclinals folds. Later events produced large scale folds with NE-SW axial trace in the central-western regions and N-S to NW-SE shear orientations (A). NW-SE shears activated thrusting, and the structure of the region is interpreted in plan and in section as a flower structure (B).

Go Back
Franco Bonavia

Publications

[7]
LATE PLEISTOCENE STRIKE-SLIP TECTONICS AROUND MEGA, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA Distinctive morphotectonic features, assumed to have been the result of strike-slip motion, are observed all along the escarpment which in southern Ethiopia delimits the Kenyan plain. The fault pattern is discussed.

Go Back

Franco Bonavia

Publications

[8]

MANTLE XENOLITES The locality of xenoliths (yellow pin). K-feldspar amphibole gneiss and orthogneiss (bright yellow) , bounded by faults trending NWSE; basaltic lava flows (pale green), pyroclastic rocks, agglutinates and sediments (dark to light blue-grey); circular features: volcanic cones. [Figure: Landsat TM (Google Earth from 66.25 km altitude) + SRTM + JAXA composite image] The ultramafic inclusions are spinel lherzolite (most abundant), spinel harzburgite and spinel dunite with subordinate clinopyroxenites and wherlites.

Go Back

Franco Bonavia

Publications

[9]

CRUST GEOMETRY BETWEEN ETHIOPIA AND KENYA In southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya, higher grade rocks of the Mozambique Orogenic Belt (MOB) and lower grade Arabian-Nubian Shield (ANS) are juxtaposed. The presence of steeply dipping asymmetric ductile shear zones continue vertically at depth or flatten into low-lying thrusts as overriding or detachment zones, and the large volume of crust, deformed at 15-20 km depth, in the core zone, are interpreted to represent roots of the northward expulsion of the ANS from the MOB (note todays structure at erosion level).

[PUBLICATION 10]

Go Back

Franco Bonavia

Publications

[10]

PODIFORM CHROMITITES

Contrasting interpretations are given by different authors on the nature of ultramafic bodies throughout the Mozambique Orogetic Belt and the Arabian Nubian Schield. In the Adola belt, at Kenticha Hill, in southern Ethiopia, serpentinatized peridotite host chromitites. A few were analyzed by fire-assay neutron activation for PGE. Those formed by fractionation and cumulus process differ from podiform chromitites. Chondrite-normalized platinum-group element ratios for Kenticha Hills indicate they share features with the podiform clan.

Go Back

Franco Bonavia

Publications

[11]
OPHIOLITIC BELTS IN SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA The paper describes the arrangement of the ophiolites mapped in the field or interpreted from Landsat MSS . In Fig. a, the hook-shaped ophiolite (2), bounded south by gneissic (4) or schistose rocks (1), contrast with the northward linearity of the belt (Fig.b). The internal fold-style (close, upright, slightly overturned, doubly plunging folds conform with regional structure. At the southernmost end of the belt, fold orientation changes from NE to NW. This change in fold orientation is marked by curved faults. No evidence of large (hundreds of kilometer) displacement along shear zones was observed. Shear zones appear to have developed as largescale thrusts having the geometry of front and lateral ramps.

Go Back

Franco Bonavia

Publications

[12]
EXTENSION DIRECTIONS IN THE MAIN ETHIOPIAN RIFT (MER) Northeast and north-northeast trends of volcanic centers and en echelon fractures, referred collectively to as extension structures, and north-northwest faults cutting across the MER, all mapped on SPOT images and ground-checked, developed rhomboid-shaped rift basins. It is assumed that the direction of opening of extension structures is also the orientation of the minimum principal stress 3. Fault-slip inversion on faults that cut post-Miocene volcanic rocks confirm the overall interpretation.

Go Back

Franco Bonavia

Publications

[13]
INTRAPLATE MAGMATISM BETWEEN ARABIA AND AFRICA Cenozoic volcanism from the Arabian peninsula as far as East Africa does not fit the model of a unique plume impinged beneath the Afar. It is postulated that the alkali Afro-Arabian province formed because controlled by compositional differences of the lihospheric crust passing over a plume. Thermal perturbations beneath juvenile crust, wet and fusible, caused melting leading to foundering of dense material and the injections of lighter material solidified before reaching the surface both in Arabia and Nubia, (C: wet crust ); whereas the same process beneath crust dominated by amphibolite-granulites did not produce immediate melting and lavas extruded well before magma underplating commenced in East Africa (C: dry crust).

Go Back

Franco Bonavia

Publications

[14]
ARGILLITE DEBRIS CONVERTED TO BAUXITE DURING KARST WEATHERING The Olmedo bauxite deposit is located in NW Sardinia, in Italy. The bauxite profile constitutes a basal limestone overlying desiccated marl and argillite, and passing upwards through bauxite argillite, argillaceous bauxite and compact red and white bauxite (left figure). The bauxite argillite is an identifiable unit where quartz has disappeared, illite is largely depleted, kaolinite enhanced, and bohemite (rare gibbsite) mineral makes its first appearance. This unit grades into red (hematite-rich) and then to white bauxite as kaolinite, hematite decreases and bohemite becomes the dominant mineral. Oolites and pisolites are common. Oolites are small in the white bauxite, and form a micro-oolitic texture which grades to homogeneous compact bauxite as hematite is leached and the oolitic texture is masked. Plot of TiO2 (wt%) vs Zr (ppm) shows for each sampled unit that many elements are residually concentrated at constant TiO2/Zr, proof that they were relatively immobile during the bauxiteforming process and derived from an homogeneous source.

Go Back
Franco Bonavia

Publications

[15]
VOLCANIC VENTS ROOTED ON EXTENSION STRUCTURES Most extension fractures in the Ethiopian rift are related to rift dynamics and have consistently the same orientation for hundreds of kilometers. Clear relationships between tectonics and volcanism were obtained from SPOT images by mapping extension structures (fissures, open fractures or cracks), elongated vents and linear volcanic clusters. NW- to NNW-oriented local extension directions (hidden lines) obtained from extension fractures in (a) the central segment of the Main Ethiopian Rift (a) and in the Awassa area (b). (Next page) Local extension directions deduced from directly observed extension fractures have a star at the center of hidden lines, the inferred ones instead have a small dot at the center.

Franco Bonavia

Publications

Go Back

Franco Bonavia

Publications

[16]
THE TANA BASIN: MICROTECTONIC AND MORPHOTECTONIC ANALYSES

Franco Bonavia

Publications
In the Ethiopian plateau, the Tana lake is perched on topographic high. The lake, located at the center of three converging grabens (Gondar, Debre Tabor, Dengel Ber) is impressed into mid-Tertiary flood basalt pile. Satellite image observation, DEM, and fault-slip analyses of paleostress tensor 1, 2, , calculated using the rightdihedral method (Angelier & Mechler), and the orientation of slikensides and grooving indicate the lake is a region of subsidence. [Landsat-TM (Google Earth from 242,58 km altitude) + SRTM + JAXA composite image].

Go Back

Franco Bonavia

Publications

[17]

GRAVITY INDUCED BLOCK The western Afar margin features N-S oriented basins, bordered by faults, filled with Plio-Quaternary, basins. These basins are separated from the Afar by large continental blocks. Radar imagery is an appropriate means to study landforms. A mosaic of SAR-ERS1 scenes were acquired to analyze the Borkena basin. The Radar beams light the scene from ESE, with an angle of 23E to the vertical. The image is in negative to emphasize structures. Different types of faults have been recognized. Insets: (b) this is how the Borkena pre-basin formed with a movement at releasing band of a fault system, (c) spoon-shape faults curve and continue with the same style, (d) terminate as open fissure from which lava extruded to form volcanos (i.e., Wati).

Go Back

Franco Bonavia

Publications

[18]
AFAR KINEMATICS To analyze the motion of the Arabian and Somalia plates in the last 30 million years, keeping the Nubian block fixed, new poles of rotations were derived. Figures depict the structural model in Oligocene (a), Middle Miocene (b), and Pliocene times. Black lines indicate axes of continental extension; small arrows indicate gravitational detachment from the Nubian block; larger arrows indicate extension directions in the Afar, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

Go Back

Franco Bonavia