
ISS002-715-5
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Straight-shored lakes of the Ethiopian rift segment of the East
African rift system reflect control of the shorelines by faults; the
lake bottoms have been dropped down tens to hundreds of feet. Ziway
is the large lake to the NE, Abiyatta and Shala are in the SW, and
Abaiuta is to the SE in this view. Lake Shala is the
southwesternmost; Abiyata and Langano are the central pair; and Ziway
is the larger northeastern one.
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ISS002-723-8
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This is the first-ever, near-nadir photo of the junction of the Lake
Tanganyika rift valley and the Lake Rukwa transform fault valley.
Lake Tanganyika changes trend from due N to NW, where faults of the
transform system begin to interact.
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ISS002-717-83
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Detailed near-nadir shots such as this one of NW Lake Rukwa provide
fundamental data for mapping interfering faults in remote and
commonly cloud-covered regions. Colleagues at British Petroleum and
at the Applied Geodynamics Laboratory (UT-Austin) are already using
these data in their investigations of the Western Branch of the East
African rift. Faults of several trends and senses of displacement are
shown in the following view; hachures are on the downdropped sides of
fault lines.
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ISS002-717-81
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Another first - details of volcanic vents of the Rungwe volcanic
field and faults at the SW end of Lake Rukwa can be examined in this
fine telephoto view of the junction of the Lake Rukwa transform fault
zone with the Lake Malawi rift valley.
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ISS002-717-84
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Volcanic fields at rift-transform intersections are places where
economic deposits of minerals are commonly localized. The gold mines
of the Chunya district, the regular light patches around the Mbeya
Range, have yielded between 2 and 8 million ounces of gold as of
March 2001.
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