Consideration of the age of basalts within the Cretaceous Abduya Sandstone, southeastern Ethiopian Plateau edge

Abstract

We present first field observation and petrography for dark, aphyric basalts, bounded by Cretaceous Abduya Sandstone, from southeastern Ethiopian Plateau edge. The motivation of this work is to consider the apparent age of these basalts, previously mapped as Cretaceous basalt lava flows. The basalts are relatively fresh without surface alteration/weathering, suggesting they are much younger than Cretaceous in age – likely the same as the surrounding Neogene Ginir basalts.