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Geomorphology 89 (2007) 287 296 www.elsevier.

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Planation surfaces in Northern Ethiopia


M. Coltorti a , F. Dramis b,, C.D. Ollier c
b a Department of Earth Sciences, University of Siena, Via di Laterina 8, 53100 Siena, Italy Department of Geological Sciences, Roma Tre University, Largo S. Leonardo Murialdo 1, 00146 Rome, Italy c School of Earth and Geographical Sciences, University of Western Australia, Nedlands WA 6009, Australia

Received 7 November 2006; received in revised form 19 November 2006; accepted 19 December 2006 Available online 22 December 2006

Abstract Planation surfaces are an old-fashioned topic in geomorphology, but they are nevertheless important where they make up much of the landscape. Northern Ethiopia is largely a stepped topography, caused by differential erosion. Exhumation of old planation surfaces that were preserved under sedimentary or volcanic cover is an important process in landscape evolution. The oldest planation surface is of early Palaeozoic age (PS1); the second is Late Triassic (PS2); and the third is of Early Cretaceous age (PS3). The Oligocene Trap Volcanics buried a surface (PS4) of early Tertiary age, which is now widely exposed by erosion as a surface that, where flat enough, is an exhumed planation surface. The surfaces do not relate to the supposed Africa-wide pediplain sequence of King [King, L.C., 1975. Planation surfaces upon highlands. Z. Geomorph. NF 20 (2), 133148.], either in mode of formation and age. Although the region is tropical, there is scarce evidence of deep weathering and few indications that the surfaces could be regarded as etchplains. These surfaces indicate that eastern Africa underwent long episodes of tectonic quiescence during which erosion processes were able to planate the surface at altitudes not too far from sea level. Only after the onset of rifting processes, uplift became active and transformed a vast lowland plain into the present Ethiopian highlands, largely exceeding 2500 m a.s.l. Some hypotheses and speculations on the genesis of these surfaces are considered here. 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Planation surface; Exhumation; Long-term geomorphic evolution; Ethiopia

1. Introduction Planation surfaces, once a basic concern of geomorphologists, have been largely neglected in recent years, and some even deny their existence (Smailes, 1960; Hack, 1973). But they are real features and it is impossible to make sense of planated landscapes without recognising and trying to understand them.
Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: coltorti@unisi.it (M. Coltorti), dramis@uniroma3.it (F. Dramis), cliffol@cyllene.uwa.edu.au (C.D. Ollier). 0169-555X/$ - see front matter 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2006.12.007

There is increasing debate on the mechanism of formation of planation surfaces, and they play an important role in deciphering the origin of mountains (Ollier and Pain, 2000) and landscape evolution on passive continental margins (e.g. Peulvast and Sales, 2005). Here we briefly describe the landscape of northern Ethiopia, which is dominated by planation surfaces. They do not fit into the schemes of pediplain or etchplain, and seem to follow, at least in part, the classical peneplanation model of Davis (1899). In any case, they reveal significant geomorphological details and provide data for an up-to-date discussion and

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Fig. 1. Map of northern Ethiopia with the localities mentioned in the text.

interpretation of long-term landscape evolution of this part of East Africa. 1.1. The study area The northern Ethiopian Highland (Fig. 1) is a region of high plateaus, located on the western side of the triple junction between the Nubian (African), Somalian and Arabian Plates (Mohr, 1967; Ebinger, 1989). It is generally over 2000 m a.s.l. with isolated hills and volcanic relief up to 4620 m at Mt. Ras Dashan, the highest peak in Ethiopia. The region is bordered to the east by the stepped fault/fault-line escarpments (Figs. 2 and 3), mostly trending NS, that lead down to the Afar lowlands making a link between the Red Sea fault system and the Main Ethiopian Rift (Ebinger, 1989; Abbate et al., 2002). To the west, there is a progressive decrease in mean elevation to the Sudan and the Nile. The main rivers valleys (Takeze River, Gash River, Angerb River, Abbay River) which deeply incise the plateau are part of the Blue Nile drainage basin. Their channels have a stepped long profile, alternating gently sloping segments and deep gorges with waterfalls at their head. The valley slopes usually show a stepped

morphology due to selective erosion. This stepped morphology, known locally as amba landscape, is related to strong contrasts between hard and soft rocks (Fig. 4). Some contrasting types of rock are conformable, but some are related to major unconformities and constitute exhumed planation surfaces. The eastern side of the northern Ethiopian Highlands includes the Mekelle Plateau, a gently rolling region of about 8000 km2 with a mean elevation of 20002200 m a.s.l. rising southwards, out of the study area, to over 3000 m a.s.l. at the Amba Alagi volcanic range. The Tigre Plateau to the north is separated from the Mekelle outlier by a set of fault scarps some hundred of metres high. The Mekelle outlier (Fig. 2) is an almost circular tectonic sedimentary basin where a thick sedimentary sequence spanning from the Palaeozoic to the Tertiary is preserved (Fig. 3). This allows us to better define the relationships between large scale tectonics, sedimentation and unconformities, which in the past were planation surfaces. The 1:250,000 geological maps of Mekelle (Arkin et al., 1971) and Adigrat (Aklilu et al., 1978) provide a unique opportunity to observe the relationship between bedrock formations and unconformities over a very wide area.

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Fig. 2. Geomorphological sketch map of the study area with traces of the cross sections of Fig. 3. 1. Precambrian; 2. Palaeozoic; 3. Late Triassic Jurassic; 4. Cretaceous; 5. Oligocene Trap Volcanics; 6. Rift escarpment; 7. Afar Neogene Deposits; 8. PS1; 9. PS2; 10. PS3; 11. PS4; 12. Edge of the main Rift escarpment; 13. Major faults; MK. Mekele; AD. Adigrat; EN. Enticho; EA. Edaga Arbi. In the Mekele outlier, where the Mesozoic sedimentary rocks are preserved, the four planation surfaces mentioned in the text are easily recognisable.

290 M. Coltorti et al. / Geomorphology 89 (2007) 287296 Fig. 3. Simplified geological cross sections of the study area. 1. Precambrian; 2. Palaeozoic; 3. Late TriassicJurassic; 4. Cretaceous; 5. Oligocene Trap Volcanics; 6. Afar Neogene Deposits; 7. PS1; 8. PS2; 9. PS3; 10. PS4. In the northern sector both the PS1 and PS are visible. To the east the PS1 is displaced by the Rift fault system. In section 3, cutting across the northern part of the Mekele outlier, all the planation surfaces are present and clearly recognisable.

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2. Geological evolution, bedrock stratigraphy and large scale geomorphology The stratigraphic sequence of the northern Ethiopian Highlands ranges from the Pre-Cambrian to the Holocene (Merla and Minucci, 1938; Garland, 1980; Bosellini et al., 1997; Fig. 2). Widespread unconformities related to phases of prevailing erosion interrupted the major depositional events allowing us to recognise the occurrence of long periods of limited tectonic activity. 2.1. Precambrian Strongly deformed low grade metavolcanics and metasediments of Precambrian age (Mock et al., 1999) make up the basement in northern Ethiopia (Figs. 2 and 3). North of Mekelle (e.g. between Wukro and Hauzien) the metamorphic basement is intruded by batholiths and stocks of Late PrecambrianEarly Paleozoic age, dated to 600 Ma by Garland (1980). 2.2. The pre-Ordovician planation surface (PS1) The planation surfaces are very obvious in the field, but in addition to morphology we examined related stratigraphy, sedimentology and structures to help determine their mode of formation, their relative age, and where possible the stratigraphic age. This depends to some extent on the occurrence of suitable exposures,

and involved our own field work as well as that recorded in the literature. The oldest extensive planation surface (PS1) truncates the pre-Paleozoic basement and cuts clearly across the Precambrian granite batholiths (Fig. 2). This surface is very flat (Figs. 2, 3 and 5) and crops out due to exhumation north of Mekelle, where it reaches elevations of about 3000 m a.s.l., and in western Tigray (Tembien Plateau), where it declines to ca. 2000 m due to normal faults and a slight westward tectonic tilting. In the Mekelle outlier, this surface is deeply buried under a thick sedimentary sequence and it is probably located almost at present sea level (Fig. 3). 2.3. The post-PS1 Ordovician depositional cycle The oldest rocks that cover the PS1 planation surface belong to the Early Paleozoic. They are represented by a wide variety of continental sandstones of alluvial and aeolian facies (Enticho Sandstone Formation; Arkin et al., 1971) that in their upper part interfinger with tillites and coastal sediments (Edaga Arbi Glacials; Beyth, 1971; Garland, 1980). These deposits, whose total thickness is few hundred metres, are thought to be of Middle-Upper Ordovician age. In fact, paleomagnetic data confirm that during the OrdovicianSilurian the South Pole was located in North Africa so that the Ethiopian glacial cover could have reached the dimensions of a continental ice-sheet (Saxena and Assefa, 1983).

Fig. 4. Amba landscape in northern Tigray.

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Fig. 5. The pre-Ordovician planation surface (PS1) between Wukro and Adigrat.

These rocks crop out at the northern margin of the Mekelle outlier and, as small remnants, in different parts of the northern Highlands where they make up minor ridges and hills rising slightly above the PS1. 2.4. The Late Triassic planation surface (PS2) This unconformity, that covers at least the whole Permian, corresponds to a planation episode called the First Erosional (Peneplain) Cycle by Merla and Minucci (1938). The amount of vertical erosion, which follows a previous uplift phase (Guiraud and Bosworth, 1999), roughly ranges between some hundreds to no more than one thousand metres. Although of great stratigraphic significance, this unconformity has little geomorphological expression because in many places it merges with the previous PS1 surface. Moreover, the planation surface is rarely exhumed due to weakness of the underlying rocks. The best places where it is recognisable are the Mekelle outlier and in the Adigrat area (Figs. 2 and 3) where it is preserved at around 23002500 m a.s.l. 2.5. The Mesozoic depositional cycle The first Mesozoic sediments in the area are the Adigrat Sandstone (also known as Lower Sandstone) of Late TriassicEarly Jurassic age (Merla and Minucci, 1938; Blanford, 1869). The sandstones crop out extensively all around the Mekelle outlier and as limited

remnants in different parts of the Tigre Plateau and along the Eastern Escarpment, lying unconformably over the older Palaeozoic deposits or, further to the north, directly on planated Precambrian basement (Merla and Minucci, 1938). The sandstones are fluvial, with cross-bedding and fossil wood, indicating a wide alluvial plain crossed by meandering channels (Bosellini et al., 1997). A gradual transition to coastal marine deposits was observed by Garland (1980). The thickness of the Adigrat Sandstone is variable, possibly as a result of syn-sedimentary faulting. In the northern Ethiopian Highlands it reaches about 700 m at Abi Adi, south west of Mekelle, and it thins out to the east (Beyth, 1972). Around Adigrat and in Eritrea the top of the Adigrat Sandstone is partially covered by a thick lateritic crust (Merla and Minucci, 1938; Abul-Haggag, 1961). The boundary between the Adigrat Sandstones and the overlying marine Antalo Supersequence is transitional through 2030 m thick shales with some calcarenite and sandstone intercalations (Bosellini et al., 1997; Sagri et al., 1998). The occurrence of laterite soils and ferruginous hard ground layers testifies the repeated fluctuations of sea level during the early stages of the transgression (Bosellini et al., 1997). The age of the transitional beds is Late Callovian (?) Early Oxfordian. The Antalo Supersequence (Late Jurassic) is a shallow water transgressive succession made up of alternating limestone and shale (Bosellini et al., 1997). It largely outcrops in the Mekelle outlier. The lower part

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Fig. 6. The Cretaceous planation surface (PS3) north of Mekele. Mt. Amba Aradam is visible in the background.

of the supersequence (Antalo Limestone; Merla and Minucci, 1938) includes massive limestone layers alternating with shales; the upper part besides shale includes marl, coquina limestone, sandstone and gypsum (Agula Shales; Merla and Minucci, 1938). The transgression came from the southeast (Somalia), where the deposits are thicker and the facies reveals a deeper sedimentary environment (Merla and Minucci, 1938; Bosellini et al., 1995, 1997). It likely extended over a much larger area than that of the outcropping sediments whose present limits are due to subsequent erosion. The dissection of this sedimentary sequence produced the best conditions for selective erosion, creating stepped slopes and the typical mesa/ amba morphology. 2.6. The Cretaceous planation surface (PS3) At the end of the Jurassic, an episode of intense tectonic deformation and uplift, possibly associated with the onset of a proto-Rift in the Aden Gulf (Bosellini, 1992), occurred over a large area and generated some of the largest basins in northern Ethiopia as well as in other parts of east Africa (Bosellini, 1992; Fantozzi, 1998; Fantozzi and Ali Kassim, 2002). In this context, WNW ESE faults displaced the Mesozoic sequence (Arkin et al., 1971; Aklilu et al., 1978; Russo et al., 1996).

Subsequently, a new planation episode (PS3) cut across the deformed rocks and the WNWESE faults (Figs. 2, 3 and 6). The amount of denudation is of the order of 12 km, that is the thickness of the TriassicJurassic sequence. West and south of Mekelle (Hegere Selam, Mt. Amba Aradam), at about 25002700 m a.s.l., this planation surface is a key marker. Elsewhere it is recognisable as an unconformity within the sedimentary sequence. 2.7. Cretaceous the Amba Aradam Formation The Amba Aradam Formation, also known as Upper Sandstone, consists of a 100200 m thick quartz sandstone, gravels and silts with occasional thin laterite levels. It crops out around Mekele, unconformably overlying the previous units. Due to the absence of fossils, the formation has been referred to the Aptian Albian by correlation with similar deposits outcropping in south-eastern Ethiopia (Gortani, 1973; Beauchamp, 1977). The sedimentary environment was recently related to an alluvial plain (Bosellini et al., 1997). However, the presence of layers of laminated wellrounded quarz pebbles and sands at the base of the formation seems to indicate the occurrence of beach deposits intercalated with coastal marsh and alluvial plain sediments. The upper part of the sedimentary

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sequence is often deeply weathered into a reddish violet iron-rich horizon, indicating prolonged subaerial weathering in tropical conditions. 2.8. The Trap Volcanics and the sub-Trap planation surface (PS4) In the Mekele region the Amba Aradam Formation is overlain by the Trap Volcanics, a pile of basalt lava flows more than 2000 m thick, overlying the Mesozoic, Paleozoic and pre-Paleozoic formations (Merla and Minucci, 1938; Blanford, 1869; Zanettin and JustinVisentin, 1973; Chernet et al., 1998; Couli et al., 2003). The lower group (Ashangi Group) is composed almost entirely of basalts, and the upper group (Magdala Group) includes some rhyolites. Around Mekele, the Trap Volcanics crop out only locally. Ar/Ar dating and magnetostratigraphy indicate that they were emplaced in northern Ethiopia between 30.5 and 26 Ma (Chernet et al., 1998; Couli et al., 2003). In large parts of the highlands (i.e. in the whole Mekelle outlier) this phase of eruption was associated with the emplacement a large number of doleritic dykes, sills and laccolites within the Antalo Supersequence. The sills are often perfectly conformable with the strata they intrude, especially in the Agula Shales, and are up to 5060 m thick. They give rise to prominent steps in the landscape when the overlying soft rocks are eroded away, and locally are an important component of the stepped amba landscape. A regional unconformity was firstly recognised by Blanford (1869) at the base of the basalts. It corresponds to an extensive erosion surface (Figs. 2 and 3), called by Mohr (1962) Pre-trappean peneplanation, which followed a period of tectonic deformation and regional uplift (Abul-Haggag, 1961; Omar and Steckler, 1995; Ghebreab and Talbot, 2000). However, the differences in thickness within the overlying volcanics seem to indicate an underlying gently rolling landscape with wide flat sectors rather than a true planation surface. Erosion of the basalt cover could lead to exhumation of the underlying surface, giving rise to fairly flat elements in the landscape such as at Mt. Amba Aradam, where a flat erosional surface is preserved at around 2500 m a.s.l. 2.9. The post-Trap widespread erosion and tectonics The late TertiaryQuaternary uplift which followed the onset of rifting processes (Faure, 1975; Almond, 1986; Mohr, 1986; Balestrieri et al., 2005) transformed a vast lowland plain into the present Ethiopian highlands, whose altitude largely exceeds 2500 m a.s.l. In this

context, a further important erosional episode extensively removed the Trap Volcanics as well as the underlying sedimentary rocks, causing the widespread exhumation and the incision of the previous planation surfaces. 3. Discussion Exhumed surfaces are well-known in different parts of the world and, as in northern Ethiopia, they originate well back in geological time, though they are now part of the present scenery (Ollier et al., 1988; Twidale, 1994; Lidmar-Bergstrom, 1995). Elsewhere in Africa exhumed planation surfaces have been recognised where overlying volcanics have been stripped away. In Uganda partial stripping of the Miocene Mount Elgon has exposed a very flat and deeply weathered subvolcanic surface (Ollier and Harrop, 1960). A general scheme of Africa-wide pediplain surfaces was provided by Lester King (1962, 1975), who also included Ethiopia in his scheme but never visited the area. In reality, the exhumed surfaces of northern Ethiopia do not relate to the King (1975) model, either in mode of formation or age. King believed in a series of pediplains of world-wide extent, each induced by global epeirogenic uplift. This is quite different from surfaces related to local tectonics, as in Ethiopia, and any correspondence with King's ages would be purely coincidental. More recently, thermo-chronological investigation have recognised in Kenya episodes of denudation at 55 60 Ma, 100110 Ma and 180200 Ma (Foster and Gleadow, 1996). These three episodes could fit well with the modelling of the PS4, PS3 and PS2 surfaces, respectively. The planation surfaces of northern Ethiopia were originally unconformities between major rock units with different resistance to the erosional processes. Through their investigation, we can state that the study area underwent a series of cyclic events characterised by phases of deposition, where the accommodation space was provided by large scale tectonic deformation, alternating with periods during which the previous sediments were firstly uplifted and then planated. A major phase of deformation occurred before the Ordovician, when the PS1 was moulded across the strongly deformed basement. Tectonic deformation and uplift occurred before the Late Triassic, when the modelling of the PS2 took place and, to a greater extent, before the Late Cretaceous, when the PS3 was cut across the faulted sedimentary sequences of the Mekelle outlier and the Nile gorge. Uplift also occurred in the Early Tertiary before the PS4 and the deposition of the Trap Volcanics.

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The genetic models and mechanisms of planation are difficult to ascertain. Etchplanation (Wayland, 1933) is not a significant feature in northern Ethiopia, and although there are places with fairly deep weathering and duricrusts, none of the investigated surfaces could be described as etchplains. In fact, they are very flat and do not develop in correspondence to weathering horizons even if older deeply weathered horizons are interlayered in the sequences and are also intercepted in places. Nor does the evidence from northern Ethiopia support the suggestion, made by King (1962) and supported more recently by Partridge (1998), that planation surfaces can be created simultaneously at high levels in the landscape and at the coast because all Ethiopian surfaces have a single distinct age. Of course, at the present day, current erosion processes are extending planation surfaces at different levels simultaneously, but when we talk of the age of an exhumed planation surface we refer to the time when it originated, not to the time of its exposure. Using the normal laws of stratigraphy, the planation surface age is like an unconformity surface, younger than the rocks it cuts across and older than the overlying sediments. A prominent genetic role of fluvial processes for PS1, PS2 and PS3 is suggested by the sedimentary facies of the overlying deposits (Bosellini et al., 1997) even if glacial erosion could have contributed to the modelling of PS1. Marine erosion could also have been responsible for planation, as suggested by the possible occurrence of marine sediments over the PS3, at the base of the Amba Aradam sedimentary sequence. It is worth recalling that in the nineteenth century many planation surfaces were interpreted as surfaces of marine planation, as by Ramsay (1846, 1872), but with the advent of Davisian geomorphology many were re-interpreted as peneplains. For an interesting discussion of these ideas see Johnson (1985). In any case, the Ethiopian planation surfaces seem to indicate that erosional processes repeatedly flattened down to the base sea-level a previously deformed and uplifted landscape thus following, at least in part, the classical cycle of Davis (1899). 4. Conclusion Apart from the uncertainties on genetic mechanisms and models, the planation surfaces of northern Ethiopia provide a fine example of long-term geomorphological evolution in a region affected by recurrent phases of intense tectonic activity, responsible for the emplacement of vast sedimentary basins and significant relief, alternating with prolonged periods of tectonic quiescence, during which planation surfaces were modelled at

relatively low altitude. They provide enough information to show that conventional models such as peneplanation and pediplanation are inadequate, on their own, for describing landscape evolution. Here, the surfaces do not fit into global models such as that of King (1975), but relate to local or regional tectonics. References
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