Field Research

Somali Region, Ethiopia

Since January 2000 the PAR Team does Fieldwork in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. Our research area is in the vicinity of Mount Galila, near the village of Gadamaitu.

An about 130m thick succession of sedimentary deposits and intercalated basalts and pyroclastic layers is present in the area. The tectonic setting is of horst and graben type, as a result of the Mio-Pliocene opening in the Afar depression. A preliminary absolute date for one of the ignimbrites in the area gave the age of 4.1 MYA, the biostratigraphic evidence also points to an age higher than 3 MYA (probably 3.5-4 MYA).

In the last years several hundert vertebrate fossils were recovered in this area, they are now housed in the National Museum Addis Abeba.