Simultaneous rift-scale inflation of a deep crustal sill network in Afar, East Africa

A. Rosa (), C. Pagli, H. Wang (), F. Sigmundsson, V. Pinel and D. Keir ()
Additional contact information
A. Rosa: Università di Pisa
C. Pagli: Università di Pisa
H. Wang: South China Agricultural University
F. Sigmundsson: University of Iceland
V. Pinel: ISTerre
D. Keir: Università degli Studi di Firenze

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Decades of studies at divergent plate margins have revealed networks of magmatic sills at the crust-mantle boundary. However, a lack of direct observations of deep magma motion limits our understanding of magma inflow from the mantle into the lower crust and the mechanism of sill formation. Here, satellite geodesy reveals rift-scale deformation caused by magma inflow in the deep crust in the Afar rift (East Africa). Simultaneous inflation of four sills, laterally separated by 10s of km and at depths ranging 9–28 km, caused uplift across a ~ 100-km-wide zone, suggesting the sills are linked to a common mantle source. Our results show the supply of magma into the lower crust is temporally episodic, occurring across a network of sills. This process reflects inherent instability of melt migration through porous mantle flow and may be the fundamental process that builds the thick igneous crust beneath magmatic rifts and rifted margins globally.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-47136-4 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-47136-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-47136-4

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().