KINEMATICS OF KALAYE ESCARPMENT, NORTHERN ZAMBIA: PROVIDING INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH EXPERIENCE FOR STUDENTS

This project focused on the geology and kinematics of the Kalaye escarpment to better understand how it was formed and its relationship with the East African Rift System (EARS). The lineament trends northeast from Lake Mweru Wantipa (part of the southwestern branch of the EARS) to Lake Tanganyika (western branch of the EARS). Using ASTER and SRTM data sets it is observed that the lineament splays into several branches and segments towards Lake Tanganyika. As part of our NSF-International Research Experience for Students project, we partnered with the University of Zambia and Geological Survey Department, Zambia to investigate the structure of the Kalaye lineament and to determine the kinematic interplay between the older Western Branch of the East African Rift System and the more nascent southwestern branch. This also provided an international hands-on research experience for students. Our field investigations suggest that the geology within this region is dominated by shallow dipping to horizontal quartzites. Our field investigations are coincident with our ASTER and SRTM which reveal heavily jointed quartzite escarpments. The lack of evidence of strain recorded by these quartzites along the face of the escarpments suggest that these lineaments may represent steep erosional scarps rather than fault scarps; or possibly dilational faults, however further geomorphological and geophysical investigations are required to validate these findings. If this is the case important revisions will need to be made to the bedrock geologic map of Zambia.