From “Geological Heartbeats” to Continental Breakup: A Synthesis from the Afar Rift Zone

The Afar region of East Africa is a key natural laboratory for understanding continental rifting and incipient ocean formation. Recent studies have introduced the hypothesis of episodic mantle upwellings, termed “geological heartbeats,” which may influence rift propagation and lithospheric weakening. This short note synthesizes geological, geochemical, and geophysical evidence for the heartbeat model, emphasizing its implications for plume-rift interaction and continental breakup. While the concept is provocative, significant uncertainties remain regarding its temporal resolution, generality, and physical mechanism. Afar thus provides an important setting for testing evolving models of mantlelithosphere coupling and the episodicity of rift evolution.