Stratigraphy and evolution of the trachy-ryolitic volcanism of the Senafe area (Eastern Eritrean Plateau)

The Senafe area reveals a pile of stratoid volcanic rocks ("Senafe" ignimbrite), of considerable extent and thickness, which are the products of the first volcanic event which took place in this sector, close to the upper margin of the Afar escarpment. The Senafe ignimbrite is composed prevalently of trachyte with differing degrees of alkalinity: trachy-dacite of transitional series, and trachyte s.s. of mildly alkaline series. K/Ar radiometric measurements carried out on three samples give ages ranging between 21 and 23 Ma (Lower Miocene) and show that the Senafe ignimbrite with transitional character is an extension of the Serae rhyolite of the Central Eritrean Plateau, and may also be correlated with the Miocene Alaji rhyolite of the Central Ethiopian Plateau. In contrast, the more alkaline ignimbrite shows good correlations with the trachyte emitted by the Miocene Termaber alkaline central volcanoes of Ethiopia. It is noted that, in the course of the Miocene volcanism in Eritrea, the volumetric ratio between associated basalt and ignimbrite diminishes from west to east, i.e., approaching the Afar escarpment. The stratoid volcanic rocks are injected by thick trachytic and rhyolitic dykes. As radiometric measurements on them could not be performed, their age is unknown, but it is probably more recent than that of the injected ignimbrite, according to Merla and Minucci (1938) for similar dykes and domes occurring in the Adwa-Axum area (Tigrai, Ethiopia), not far from Senafe. A section is devoted to the dyke feeders of the Eritrean and Adwa-Axum volcanism.