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Moho depth estimation of northern of East African Rift System

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Published/Copyright: August 22, 2023
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Abstract

The northern part of the East African Rift System is characterized by depleted Moho depth and thermally thinned lithosphere. This research aims to determine the Moho depth of the study area through non-linear gravity inversion and cross-validation with seismic Moho estimates. The study utilized gravity data to obtain the gravity anomaly of the Moho interface, a topographic grid for removing topographic effects, a crustal model to determine total sediment thickness and its gravitational effect, and seismic Moho depth for constraining the forward model and cross-validation. The estimated Moho depth of the study area ranges between 5 km (in the Indian Ocean) to 45 km (in the Ethiopian Highlands), with slight variation compared to seismic Moho relief. This is because the reference level, calculated for the thinner part of the study region, underestimates the entire area. Upwelling magma in the Eastern branches of the EARS may also incur slight variation in the estimated Moho depth; rifting, volcanism, melt intrusion, magmatic uplift, and tectonic setting all influence the Moho depth of the study area. Furthermore, reverberations affect most seismic Moho estimations in the region. The slight variation can be mitigated by improving the gravity network for accurate validation and precise heat flow measurement to correctly identify magmatic anomalies and density contrasts. Additionally, applying reverberation removal techniques in the study region could improve seismic Moho estimation.


Corresponding author: Eyasu Alemu, Geodesy and Geodynamics Research and Development Department, Space Science and Geospatial Institute (SSGI) 33679 Minilik Avenue II, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, E-mail:

  1. Research ethics: The composition of this study complies with all ethical standards.

  2. Author contributions: The author confirms sole responsibility for the following: study conception and design, installation of GMT, PyGMT, anaconda, and Moho depth inversion software and slight modification on the python code of the inversion software, data collection and analysis, development of GMT and PyGMT code for mapping the result obtained from the inversion software and generate digital elevation model of the study area, interpretation and discussion of the results, and manuscript writing, review, and editing. Finally, the author decided to submit the work for publication.

  3. Conflict of interest statement: The author state that he has no known competing financial interests or personal ties that could have influenced the research presented in this study.

  4. Research funding: This study received no specific financial support.

  5. Transparency: The author attests that the manuscript is an honest, accurate, and transparent account of the study that was reported; that no significant aspects of the investigation have been omitted; and that any deviations from the study's original design have been justified.

  6. Data availability: Datasets are available in an institutional repository that can be downloaded easily from the portal. ·GOCO06s - https://icgem.gfz-potsdam.de/;·CRUST1.0 - https://igppweb.ucsd.edu/~gabi/crust1.html; and·ETOPO1 - https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/global/. Seismic Moho datasets published in the literature (Dugda M., Nyblade A. (2014); Dugda et al. (2005); Globig et al. (2016); and Hammond et al. (2011) etc). The datasets generated during the analysis will be made available upon reasonable request by the corresponding author.

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Received: 2023-01-23
Accepted: 2023-08-02
Published Online: 2023-08-22
Published in Print: 2024-01-26

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