Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Hutchison, William
• Fusillo, Raffaella
• Pyle, David M.
• Mather, Tamsin A.
• Blundy, Jon D.
• Biggs, Juliet
• Yirgu, Gezahegn
• Cohen, Benjamin E.
• Brooker, Richard A.
• Barfod, Dan N.
• Calvert, Andrew T.

Titel

A pulse of mid-Pleistocene rift volcanism in Ethiopia at the dawn of modern humans

Ist Teil von

• Nature communications, 2016-10, Vol.7 (1), p.13192-13192, Article 13192

Ort / Verlag

London: Nature Publishing Group UK

Erscheinungsjahr

2016

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The Ethiopian Rift Valley hosts the longest record of human co-existence with volcanoes on Earth, however, current understanding of the magnitude and timing of large explosive eruptions in this region is poor. Detailed records of volcanism are essential for interpreting the palaeoenvironments occupied by our hominin ancestors; and also for evaluating the volcanic hazards posed to the 10 million people currently living within this active rift zone. Here we use new geochronological evidence to suggest that a 200 km-long segment of rift experienced a major pulse of explosive volcanic activity between 320 and 170 ka. During this period, at least four distinct volcanic centres underwent large-volume (>10 km 3 ) caldera-forming eruptions, and eruptive fluxes were elevated five times above the average eruption rate for the past 700 ka. We propose that such pulses of episodic silicic volcanism would have drastically remodelled landscapes and ecosystems occupied by early hominin populations. Past volcanic eruptions along the densely populated Ethiopian Rift valley remain poorly constrained despite the present day hazard. Hutchison et al . show that a large volcanic flare up along a 200 km section of the rift occurred between 320–170 ka dramatically affecting the landscape and hominin population.