Original Article 129 Influence of neotectonics on land surface evolution in the upper part of the Blue Nile Basin (Ethiopia): findings from a DEM Michal Kusák1,*, Vít Vilímek2, Jozef Minár3 1 Institute of Rock Structure and Mechanics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic 2 Charles University, Faculty of Science, Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology, Czech Republic 3 Comenius University in Bratislava, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology, Slovak Republic * Corresponding author:
[email protected] ABSTRACT The morphometric analysis of lineaments, valleys and signs of erosion taken from a digital elevation model (DEM) made it possible to not only confirm most of the conclusions of the morphotectonic development of the Blue Nile Basin from the previously pub- lished results of structural, petrological, tectonic and geochronological analyses, but also to expand our knowledge by applying several new hypotheses. The relative age of the morpholineaments of particular directions was estimated from the character of topographic profiles. Faults, lineaments and valleys are predominantly oriented in a direction compatible to the published concepts of the tectonic development of the area. Overall, the most abundant NE-SW and NNE-SSW lines reflect a change of extension from a NW-SE to WNW-ESE direction during the Pliocene, in relation to the creation and development of the Main Ethiopian Rift (MER). This is confirmed by a more developed character of the valleys and less pronounced erosion activity of the NE-SW oriented valleys contrary to the deeper narrower NNE-SSW valleys characterised by downward and headward erosion in the second direction.