FOR 703:  Rift Dynamics, Uplift and Climate Change in Equatorial Africa: Interdisciplinary Research Linking Asthenospere, Lithosphere, Biosphere and Atmosphere

• Subject Area: Geosciences
• Term: from 2006 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 18857975

Feedback between tectonic uplift and erosional denudation can have drastic effects on global and regional climate patterns, which in turn have a significant impact on ecosystems and biogeographic zone distributions. The Research Unit RiftLink addresses the causes of rift-flank uplift in the East African Rift since the Late Miocene, its impact on climate changes in Equatorial Africa and the possible consequences for the evolution of hominids.
The immediate objective is to gain a process understanding of rift-flank uplift by investigating the origin of the more than 5000 meter high Rwenzori Mountains, which are located within the Ugandan part of the East African Rift. RiftLink integrated research includes geophysics, petrology, low-temperature thermochronology, structural geology, geomorphology, sedimentology, paleontology, isotope geochemistry, climatology and numerical modelling. An ideal outcome of RiftLink would be a significant step towards a comprehensive geodynamic understanding of rift systems.

• DFG Programme: Research Units

Projects

• Geology, petrology and age determination of Archaean-Proterozoic basement rocks of western Uganda (Applicant Foley, Stephen F. )
• Impact of climatic and environmental variability on faunal composition and distribution of molluscan and mammalian faunas in Eastern Africa (Applicant Schrenk, Friedemann )
• Koordination der Forschungsgruppe 703 (Applicant Rümpker, Georg )
• Linking source and sink in the Rwenzori Mountains and adjacent rift basins, Uganda: Landscape evolution and the sedimentary record of extreme uplift (Applicant Hinderer, Matthias )
• Lithospheric structure and seismicity of the Rwenzori mountains as part of the Albertine rift system (Applicant Rümpker, Georg )
• Long Period Magnetotellurics in Western Uganda (Applicant Junge, Andreas )
• Modelling of climatic changes caused by rift-flank uplift (Applicant Cubasch, Ulrich )
• Modelling the extreme uplift in the Rwenzori Mountains: Insights from exogenic and endogenic numerical approaches (Applicants Kaufmann, Georg ;  Schmeling, Harro )
• Paleoclimate reconstruction for the East African Rift from geochemical studies of mammalian teeth (Applicant Mertz, Ph.D., Dieter F. )
• Structural expression of extreme rift-flank uplift (Applicant Koehn, Daniel )
• Thermal histroy, denudation, uplift, and log-term landscape evolution of the Rwenzori Montains, Uganda (Applicants Förster, Andrea ;  Glasmacher, Ulrich A. )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Georg Rümpker