Cretaceous Terrain – Secondary Lands of Tigrinyaland and Semien

This is the twelfth part of the geological description of Tigrinyaland¹ and Semien², which has been adapted from Messrs. Ferret and Galinier‘s work published in 1847³. In this installment, the secondary lands of Tigrinyaland and Semien composed of cretaceous terrains will be reviewed.

We haven’t seen traces of the Cretaceous terrain anywhere. However, from the relative position of the lands of Abyssinia⁴, from the very vague information we have been able to gather, and from the explorations of Mr. Rochet d’Héricourt⁵, it seems that the Cretaceous terrain has its representative at the limit of the oolitic terrain, towards Shoa, and that it extends beyond that region.

The melaphyre found here and there in Abyssinia, and of which the foot of Tarenta⁶ and the vicinity of Adi-Kuita offer examples, could be rationally related to the Cretaceous terrain. This melaphyre, which is blackish green in Tarenta, and reddish black, with white crystals of labradorite, in Adi-Kuita, emerged through syenite, phyllite and greywacke.

Reference Notes

1. Tigrinyaland was a collective name of the Midri-Bahri (modern-day state of Eritrea) and Tigray (the northernmost region of modern-day Ethiopia). The term employed for Tigrinyaland by Messrs. Ferret and Galinier in their book is “Tigré”, which had been the designation used by the Amhara rulers of Abyssinia to refer both to the Tigrinya people and the Tigrinyaland. ↩︎
2. Semien was historically the frontier province of the Tigrinya with the Amhara. However, since the reign of Emperor Susenyos, the province of Semien had been governed by members of the Amhara royalty and nobility. Following the death of Dejazmatch Sabagadis in 1831, Semien under its Amhara ruler Dejazmatch Wubbe turned from the frontier province of the Tigrinyaland to the power-center of the Tigrinyaland. This continued until the rise of Emperor Tewodros in 1855. ↩︎
3. Ferret, Pierre Victor Adolphe et Galinier, Joseph Germain (1847) Description Géologique du Tigré et du Samen. Voyage en Abyssinie dans les provinces du tigre, du samen et de L’amhara. Tome troisième. Paulin: Paris. ↩︎
4. Abyssinia is a reference to the region which encompasses the modern-day states of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, parts of Sudan and parts of Somalia. ↩︎
5. Rochet d’Héricourt, C. E. X. (1841) Voyage sur la côte orientale de la mer Rouge, dans le pays d’Adel et le royaume de Choa. 1 vol. in-8°. Pag. 130. Paris. ↩︎
6. The Tarenta mountain range forms the eastern escarpement of modern-day Eritrea, and looks down on the Eritrean eastern lowlands which are close to the Red Sea. ↩︎