Hot and deep

Andrew Mitchinson

Nature, 2013, vol. 499, issue 7456, 37-37

Abstract: How mantle melting drives Afar rifting David Ferguson and co-authors show that the extensive syn-rift magmatism observed along the southern Red Sea rift in Afar is driven by deep melting of hotter-than-normal asthenosphere. Their petrogenetic modelling shows that melts are predominantly generated at depths greater than about 80 km, implying the existence of a thick upper thermo-mechanical boundary layer in a rift system approaching the point of plate rupture. They conclude that sustained magmatic activity during rifting in Afar requires persistently high mantle potential temperatures, which allow melting at high pressure beneath the thick plate.

Date: 2013
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DOI: 10.1038/499037a

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