Large-scale mass wasting in the western Indian Ocean constrains onset of East African rifting

Vittorio Maselli; David Iacopini; Cynthia J. Ebinger; Sugandha Tewari; Henk de Haas; Bridget S. Wade; Paul N. Pearson; Malcom Francis; Arjan van Vliet; Bill Richards; Dick Kroon

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-17267-5

Large-scale mass wasting in the western Indian Ocean constrains onset of East African rifting

Vittorio Maselli^*, David Iacopini, Cynthia J. Ebinger, Sugandha Tewari, Henk de Haas, Bridget S. Wade, Paul N. Pearson, Malcom Francis, Arjan van Vliet, Bill Richards, Dick Kroon

^*Corresponding author for this work

Geology and Geophysics

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Abstract

Faulting and earthquakes occur extensively along the flanks of the East African Rift System, including an offshore branch in the western Indian Ocean, resulting in remobilization of sediment in the form of landslides. To date, constraints on the occurrence of submarine landslides at margin scale are lacking, leaving unanswered a link between rifting and slope instability. Here, we show the first overview of landslide deposits in the post-Eocene stratigraphy of the Tanzania margin and we present the discovery of one of the biggest landslides on Earth: the Mafia mega-slide. The emplacement of multiple landslides, including the Mafia mega-slide, during the early-mid Miocene is coeval with cratonic rifting in Tanzania, indicating that plateau uplift and rifting in East Africa triggered large and potentially tsunamigenic landslides likely through earthquake activity and enhanced sediment supply. This study is a first step to evaluate the risk associated with submarine landslides in the region.

Original language	English
Article number	3456
Number of pages	10
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	11
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17267-5
Publication status	Published - 10 Jul 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We are grateful to the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC), Wes-ternGeco and Schlumberger, Royal Dutch Shell, and Shell Tanzania for giving access to the seismic and well data and allowing the publication of this work. We would also like to thank Schlumberger for providing academic licenses of the seismic interpretation software Petrel, and J. van Wijk for sharing complementary work in review. The Paleogene GLObal Warming events (GLOW) cruise, onboard of RV Pelagia, was funded by the ESF EUROCORES program (NWO project number 855.01.122). V.M. was supported by the Ocean Frontier Institute, through an award from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund, and by the NSERC Discovery Grant. C.J.E. work was supported by NSF grant 1734884 (Malawi Rift project with new compilations). B.S.W. was supported by the Joint Oceanographic Institutions/US Science Support Program and NERC grant NE/G014817. P.N.P. was supported by NERC-UK-IODP grant NE/F523293/1.

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Cite this

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title = "Large-scale mass wasting in the western Indian Ocean constrains onset of East African rifting",

abstract = "Faulting and earthquakes occur extensively along the flanks of the East African Rift System, including an offshore branch in the western Indian Ocean, resulting in remobilization of sediment in the form of landslides. To date, constraints on the occurrence of submarine landslides at margin scale are lacking, leaving unanswered a link between rifting and slope instability. Here, we show the first overview of landslide deposits in the post-Eocene stratigraphy of the Tanzania margin and we present the discovery of one of the biggest landslides on Earth: the Mafia mega-slide. The emplacement of multiple landslides, including the Mafia mega-slide, during the early-mid Miocene is coeval with cratonic rifting in Tanzania, indicating that plateau uplift and rifting in East Africa triggered large and potentially tsunamigenic landslides likely through earthquake activity and enhanced sediment supply. This study is a first step to evaluate the risk associated with submarine landslides in the region.",

author = "Vittorio Maselli and David Iacopini and Ebinger, {Cynthia J.} and Sugandha Tewari and {de Haas}, Henk and Wade, {Bridget S.} and Pearson, {Paul N.} and Malcom Francis and {van Vliet}, Arjan and Bill Richards and Dick Kroon",

note = "Funding Information: We are grateful to the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC), Wes-ternGeco and Schlumberger, Royal Dutch Shell, and Shell Tanzania for giving access to the seismic and well data and allowing the publication of this work. We would also like to thank Schlumberger for providing academic licenses of the seismic interpretation software Petrel, and J. van Wijk for sharing complementary work in review. The Paleogene GLObal Warming events (GLOW) cruise, onboard of RV Pelagia, was funded by the ESF EUROCORES program (NWO project number 855.01.122). V.M. was supported by the Ocean Frontier Institute, through an award from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund, and by the NSERC Discovery Grant. C.J.E. work was supported by NSF grant 1734884 (Malawi Rift project with new compilations). B.S.W. was supported by the Joint Oceanographic Institutions/US Science Support Program and NERC grant NE/G014817. P.N.P. was supported by NERC-UK-IODP grant NE/F523293/1. ",

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AU - Francis, Malcom

AU - van Vliet, Arjan

AU - Richards, Bill

AU - Kroon, Dick

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Large-scale mass wasting in the western Indian Ocean constrains onset of East African rifting

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