Middle East Rift Zones

Recent Outbreaks of Rift Valley Fever in East Africa and the Middle East

Rift Valley fever (RVF) is an important neglected, emerging, mosquito-borne disease with severe negative impact on human and animal health. Mosquitoes in the Aedes genus have been considered as the reservoir, as well as vectors, since their transovarially infected eggs withstand desiccation and larvae hatch when in contact with water. However, different mosquito species serve as epizootic/epide...

East African Rift System - an Overview

The main characteristics of the East African Rift System are outlined from selected references. The difference between the Eastern Rift with high volcanicity on two domal uplifts as against the Western Rift of restricted volcanism, but sediment and lake filled grabens is pointed out. This is also evident from the earthquake activity: Large earthquakes occur in the Western Rift, whereas earthqua...

Topographic controls on dike injection in volcanic rift zones

Dike emplacement in volcanic rift zones is often associated with the injection of “bladelike” dikes, which propagate long distances parallel to the rift, but frequently remain trapped at depth and erupt only near the tip of the dike. Over geologic time, this style of dike injection implies that a greater percentage of extension is accommodated by magma accretion at depth than near the surface. ...

Middle East respiratory syndrome.

Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is a highly lethal respiratory disease caused by a novel single-stranded, positive-sense RNA betacoronavirus (MERS-CoV). Dromedary camels, hosts for MERS-CoV, are implicated in direct or indirect transmission to human beings, although the exact mode of transmission is unknown. The virus was first isolated from a patient who died from a severe respiratory ...

Middle East Technical University