By Andrew Mwanandiye Tembo
To enhance global collaborative efforts in education and outreach of scientific results and implication for regional hazards due to continental rifting in the southern East of Africa, Ministry of Mining together with other international universities have organized a workshop in Blantyre. 56 Earth Scientists from 14 countries and 4 continents are discussing and debating mechanisms of continental breakup in East Africa
The four day workshop taking place in Blantyre commenced on 25th July and will finish on Friday the 28th. The workshop is aimed at strengthening interdisciplinary and international collaborations to facilitate the formation of new collaborations, particularly for early-career scientists mostly students in geosciences.
Through the workshop which is called Southern East Rift System (EARS), Malawi Geological Survey Department under Mining ministry, University of California, Darvis and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will synthesize recent scientific results on continental rifting in the (EARS)and discuss future projects and foster new collaborations.
Speaking in an interview, Deputy Director for Geological Survey Department in the Ministry of Mining Kondwani Dombola said it is high time communities understand the concept and map a comprehensive future towards changes in the environments.
“Over the past 10 years, a number of new scientific studies focused on the weakly extended and magma-poor southern part of the EARS have emerged a provision of new and surprising insights into the onset of continental breakup” Said Dombola. He went further to say scientists from Africa, United States and elsewhere will share and synthesize the results of these recent studies to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of continental stretching and associated hazards in the southern part of the East African Rift System”
Representing the international participants, Lecturer from Northern Arizona University (NAU),Donna Shillington commended the organizers for the workshop citing the interactions and attendance as positive in bringing awareness to general public.
“I am happy to see a large number of the participants in the workshop, this is a good and it is so courageous ,we have met a lot of people from African countries and others outside Africa ,this has given us hope for a collaborative positive outcome” highlighted Professor Shillington.
According to the results of various studies in regions, Malawi Rift System is located towards the ends of the magma poor in the western branch of East Africa Rift System (EARS), hence contributions from scientists working on other parts of the EARS and other rifts globally, also counts our mother land.
