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Crustal and upper mantle structure beneath south-western margin of the Arabian Peninsula from teleseismic tomography

Crustal and upper mantle structure beneath south-western margin of the Arabian Peninsula from teleseismic tomography
Crustal and upper mantle structure beneath south-western margin of the Arabian Peninsula from teleseismic tomography
We image the lithospheric and upper asthenospheric structure of western continental Yemen with 24 broadband stations to evaluate the role of the Afar plume on the evolution of the continental margin and its extent eastward along the Gulf of Aden. We use teleseismic tomography to compute relative P wave velocity variations in south-western Yemen down to 300 km depth. Published receiver function analysis suggest a dramatic and localized thinning of the crust in the vicinity of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, consistent with the velocity structure that we retrieve in our model. The mantle part of the model is dominated by the presence of a low-velocity anomaly in which we infer partial melting just below thick Oligocene flood basalts and recent off-axis volcanic events (from 15 Ma to present). This low-velocity anomaly could correspond to an abnormally hot mantle and could be responsible for dynamic topography and recent magmatism in western Yemen. Our new P wave velocity model beneath western Yemen suggests the young rift flank volcanoes beneath margins and on the flanks of the Red Sea rift are caused by focused small-scale diapiric upwelling from a broad region of hot mantle beneath the area. Our work shows that relatively hot mantle, along with partial melting of the mantle, can persist beneath rifted margins after breakup has occurred.
divergent continental margin, Afar plume, teleseismic tomography, Gulf of Aden
1525-2027
2850-2864
Korostelev, Félicie
9b376c67-6e61-4ccc-b565-cd6ef0b34535
Basuyau, Clémence
4e491b55-78cc-4ddb-a586-404f6c65f281
Leroy, Sylvie
627c503b-1036-41fc-a24c-3d09954fab0a
Tiberi, Christel
1ce11253-bdb2-4810-9536-962be2e24090
Ahmed, Abdulhakim
97c6ca5b-955e-4227-8b21-e13f225524f6
Stuart, Graham W.
284b1edc-0fc8-4479-b491-c4fc52e3cb03
Keir, Derek
5616f81f-bf1b-4678-a167-3160b5647c65
Rolandone, Frédérique
5adfaa49-10e8-40d8-bace-bee9dd39f95a
Al Ganad, Ismail
fa97fe05-6e15-4f11-8901-fddd16c4fc38
Khanbari, Khaled
21e828b7-c37b-4e78-90c8-2cefcb71012b
Boschi, Lapo
db7e9753-3eac-4f4d-af53-4ac6eb4cc485
Korostelev, Félicie
9b376c67-6e61-4ccc-b565-cd6ef0b34535
Basuyau, Clémence
4e491b55-78cc-4ddb-a586-404f6c65f281
Leroy, Sylvie
627c503b-1036-41fc-a24c-3d09954fab0a
Tiberi, Christel
1ce11253-bdb2-4810-9536-962be2e24090
Ahmed, Abdulhakim
97c6ca5b-955e-4227-8b21-e13f225524f6
Stuart, Graham W.
284b1edc-0fc8-4479-b491-c4fc52e3cb03
Keir, Derek
5616f81f-bf1b-4678-a167-3160b5647c65
Rolandone, Frédérique
5adfaa49-10e8-40d8-bace-bee9dd39f95a
Al Ganad, Ismail
fa97fe05-6e15-4f11-8901-fddd16c4fc38
Khanbari, Khaled
21e828b7-c37b-4e78-90c8-2cefcb71012b
Boschi, Lapo
db7e9753-3eac-4f4d-af53-4ac6eb4cc485

Korostelev, Félicie, Basuyau, Clémence, Leroy, Sylvie, Tiberi, Christel, Ahmed, Abdulhakim, Stuart, Graham W., Keir, Derek, Rolandone, Frédérique, Al Ganad, Ismail, Khanbari, Khaled and Boschi, Lapo (2014) Crustal and upper mantle structure beneath south-western margin of the Arabian Peninsula from teleseismic tomography. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 15 (7), 2850-2864. (doi:10.1002/2014GC005316).

Record type: Article

Abstract

We image the lithospheric and upper asthenospheric structure of western continental Yemen with 24 broadband stations to evaluate the role of the Afar plume on the evolution of the continental margin and its extent eastward along the Gulf of Aden. We use teleseismic tomography to compute relative P wave velocity variations in south-western Yemen down to 300 km depth. Published receiver function analysis suggest a dramatic and localized thinning of the crust in the vicinity of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, consistent with the velocity structure that we retrieve in our model. The mantle part of the model is dominated by the presence of a low-velocity anomaly in which we infer partial melting just below thick Oligocene flood basalts and recent off-axis volcanic events (from 15 Ma to present). This low-velocity anomaly could correspond to an abnormally hot mantle and could be responsible for dynamic topography and recent magmatism in western Yemen. Our new P wave velocity model beneath western Yemen suggests the young rift flank volcanoes beneath margins and on the flanks of the Red Sea rift are caused by focused small-scale diapiric upwelling from a broad region of hot mantle beneath the area. Our work shows that relatively hot mantle, along with partial melting of the mantle, can persist beneath rifted margins after breakup has occurred.

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e-pub ahead of print date: 17 July 2014
Published date: July 2014
Keywords: divergent continental margin, Afar plume, teleseismic tomography, Gulf of Aden
Organisations: Geology & Geophysics

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 367068
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/367068
ISSN: 1525-2027
PURE UUID: 9ee2e92a-48ac-4494-a3ee-66c7e28e420a
ORCID for Derek Keir: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-8787-8446

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Date deposited: 21 Jul 2014 12:07
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:38

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Contributors

Author: Félicie Korostelev
Author: Clémence Basuyau
Author: Sylvie Leroy
Author: Christel Tiberi
Author: Abdulhakim Ahmed
Author: Graham W. Stuart
Author: Derek Keir ORCID iD
Author: Frédérique Rolandone
Author: Ismail Al Ganad
Author: Khaled Khanbari
Author: Lapo Boschi

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