Transcurrent Faulting in the Ethiopian Rift System

THE African rift system is usually considered to be a continental extension of the mid-oceanic ridge–rift system, a connexion being made through the Gulf of Aden and the Gulf of Tajura. The detailed connecting pattern, complicated by the convergence of the Red Sea structures, shows that in terms of seismic epicentre distribution (unpublished work of P. Gouin), volcanism1 and crustal tectonics2 the transition from oceanic to continental rift is not made as smoothly as many previous hypotheses supposed.