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Part 4: Rifting in the Afar volcanic province: Geophysical studies of crustal structure and processes |
1 Grant Institute of Earth Science, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JW, Scotland kathy.whaler{at}ed.ac.uk
2 Now at IUEM-UBO, UMR ‘Domaines Océaniques’, Place Nicolas Copernic, F-29280 Plouzane, France
18 audio-frequency magnetotelluric (MT) sites were occupied along a profile across the northern Main Ethiopian Rift. The profile covered the central portion of the Ethiopia Afar Geoscientific Lithospheric Experiment (EAGLE) line 1 along which also a number of broadband seismic receivers were deployed, a controlled-source seismic survey was shot, and gravity data were collected. Here, a two-dimensional model of the MT data is presented and interpreted, and compared with the results of other methods. Shallow structure correlates well with geologically mapped Quaternary to Jurassic age rocks. Within it, a small, shallow conducting lens, at less than 1 km depth, beneath the Boset volcano may represent a magma body. The 100
m resistivity contour delineates the seismically inferred upper crust beneath the northern plateau. The Boset magmatic segment is characterized by conductive material extending to at least lower crustal depths. It has high velocity and density in the upper to mid-crust and upper mantle. Thus, all three results suggest a mafic intrusion at depth, with the MT model indicating that it contains partial melt. There is a second, slightly deeper, more conductive body in the lower crust beneath the northern plateau, tentatively interpreted as another zone containing partial melt. The crust is much more resistive beneath the southern plateau, and has no resistivity contrast between the upper and lower crust. The inferred geoelectric strike direction on the plateaus is approximately parallel to the trend of the rift border faults, but rotates northwards slightly within the rift, matching the orientation of the en echelon magmatic segments within it. This follows the change in orientation of the shear wave splitting fast direction.
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