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Late Neogene Uplift in Eastern and Southern Africa and Its Paleoclimatic Implications

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Abstract

With the exception of the Mediterranean and Red Sea littorals, Africa is one of the few continents whose underlying plate is entirely bounded by passive margins. The absolute motion of the African plate has, indeed, been relatively small since the end of the Cretaceous, amounting to no more than 14° of northward movement.1 However, the rate of drift toward the Eurasian and Indian-Arabian boundaries has not been constant through this period: its progress was significantly influenced by global patterns of plate movement, especially during the Neogene.2

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Partridge, T.C. (1997). Late Neogene Uplift in Eastern and Southern Africa and Its Paleoclimatic Implications. In: Ruddiman, W.F. (eds) Tectonic Uplift and Climate Change. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5935-1_4

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