Geomorphology and (palaeo-)hydrography of the Southern Atbai plain and western Eritrean Highlands (Eastern Sudan/Western Eritrea)

We present the geomorphology of the Southern Atbai Plain (Eastern Sudan) and the western
edge of the Eritrean Highlands (Western Eritrea), in the eastern Sahel. The mountainous area
consists of Paleo-Proterozoic gneiss and Neo-Proterozoic igneous rocks and meta-volcanic
assemblages shaped as inselbergs and whaleback landforms by weathering. Bare-rock hills
emerge from a gentle glacis that oversees the Southern Atbai alluvial plain, located
between the Atbara and Gash Rivers. The plain features the SSE-NNW-oriented endorheic
terminal fan of the Gash River and is crossed by intricate Early to Late Pleistocene
paleochannels, whose evolution was controlled by the interplay between Quaternary
regional tectonics and arid to humid climatic and environmental oscillations. The map is
intended to interpret the evolution of local landscape, thus representing a tool for
reconstructing the spatial and temporal distribution of Late Quaternary archaeological
features and their functional relationships with the fossil fluvial system and the western
foothills.