GEOLOGICAL AND GEOMORPHIC MANIFESTATIONS OF THE EAST AFRICAN RIFT IN MALAWI AND ITS PRESENT-DAY IMPLICATIONS

The East African Rift is one of the most active continental rift systems. Parts of this rift is believed to have been active for at least 30 million years. It extends from Afar region in northern part of Ethiopia and runs through Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, and into Mozambique coast covering several 1000’s of kilometers distance. The processes related to tectonic rift has resulted in some of the most dramatic and dynamic landscapes and geological features in the region. The focus of this poster is to highlight the geomorphological and geological features within Malawi, which is surrounded by Lake Malawi and Tanzania on the east, Mozambique to the south, and Zambia on the west. Lake Malawi is not only the most beautiful and biologically diverse but also the second deepest lake in Africa and the fourth largest freshwater lake in the world. This illustrated poster will also highlight some of the implications of large-scale tectonic processes on the regional landscape ecology and livelihood. This work is a result of the authors time in Malawi as a Fulbright US Scholar during 2017-18 academic year.