Aswa Dislocation Explained

The Aswa Dislocation, also called the Aswa mylonite belt, Aswa Lineament or Aswa Shear Zone, is a north-west trending ductile shear zone that runs to the east of Lake Victoria in East Africa.

Extent

The lineament dates to the Precambrian era and thus is much older than the East African Rift System. It probably extends northwest to Darfur in Sudan, perhaps along the Abu Gabra Rift, and perhaps southeast to the Lindi fault zone on the Indian Ocean coast, passing through the Kilimanjaro and Elgon volcanic centers.

Connection to the East African rift system

The fault seems to have been partly reactivated during the Neogene in the section between the Albertine and Gregory rifts, and along its southern extension towards the Indian Ocean.The reactivated section of the Aswa lineament connects the eastern and western branches of the East African rift system. It seems also to truncate the Nyanza rift, which extends ENE from Lake Victoria.The section of the Aswa Dislocation between the two rifts forms part of the boundary between the Somali Plate and the African Plate.

References

Sources

• Web site: Combination of spaceborne radar interferometry (DEM) and Landsat TM imageries contributing to recent tectonic and geology studies in the Aswa lineament shear zone (Sudan) . 21 September 1998 . C.. Volon. F.. Kervyn. S.. Slob. D.. Derauw . The International Society for Optical Engineering . 2012-04-04.
• Geological Journal . 22 . Supplement S2 . 495–513 . Winter 1987 . A model for rift development in Eastern Africa . Jean . Chorowicz . Jacques . Le Fournier . Gerard . Vidal . 10.1002/gj.3350220630.
• Book: Rach , Nina M. . https://books.google.com/books?id=k85WrOGDJDUC&pg=PA221 . Basement tectonics 7: proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Basement Tectonics, held in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, August 1987 . Tectonic Controls on the Lake Victoria Basin . Springer . 1992 . 978-0792315827.
• 1987AREPS..15..445R . 10.1146/annurev.ea.15.050187.002305 . Architecture of Continental Rifts with Special Reference to East Africa . Rosendahl . B. R. . Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences . 1987 . 15. 445–503 .