Interpretation of aeromagnetic anomalies over the Lower and Middle Benue Trough of Nigeria

Summary. The results of an interpretation of aeromagnetic anomalies over the Lower and Middle Benue Trough of Nigeria are presented. Two-dimensional interpretation of the anomalies shows that the anomalies are best interpreted in terms of basic intrusive bodies occurring either within the Cretaceous sediments or within the metamorphic basement or both. The model suggests that the intrusive bodies are of variable thickness and magnetization polarity, and may have been emplaced during different epochs of polarity. The model is in good agreement with interpretations of gravity and magnetic anomalies over similar structures elsewhere in the world.     

论青藏高原范围与面积

长期以来 ,种种因素导致学者们对青藏高原确切范围的认识和理解存在差异。根据青藏高原相关领域研究的新成果和多年野外实践 ,从地理学角度 ,充分讨论了确定青藏高原范围和界线的原则与涉及的问题 ,结合信息技术方法对青藏高原范围与界线位置进行了精确的定位和定量分析。得出 :青藏高原在中国境内部分西起帕米尔高原 ,东至横断山脉 ,横跨 31个经度 ,东西长约 2 94 5km ;南自喜马拉雅山脉南缘 ,北迄昆仑山 -祁连山北侧 ,纵贯约 13个纬度 ,南北宽达 15 32km ;范围为 2 6°0 0′12″N～ 39°4 6′5 0″N ,73°18′5 2″E～ 10 4°4 6′5 9″E ,面积为 2 5 72 4× 10 3km2 ,占我国陆地总面积的 2 6 8%。     

Lower-crustal rifting in the Rukwa Graben, East Africa

An M_w 5.9 earthquake occurred in the Lake Rukwa rift, Tanzania, on 1994 August 18, and was well recorded by 20 broad-band seismic stations at distances of 160 to 800 km and 21 broad-band stations at teleseismic distances. The regional and teleseismic waveforms have been used to investigate the source characteristics of the main shock, and also to locate aftershocks that occurred within three weeks of the main shock. Teleseismic body-wave modelling yields the following source parameters for the main shock: source depth of 25 ± 2 km, a normal fault orientation, with a horizontal tension axis striking NE-SW and an almost vertical pressure axis (Nodal Plane I: strike 126°–142°, dip 63°–66°, and rake 280°–290°; Nodal Plane II: strike 273°–289°, dip 28°–31°, and rake 235°–245°), a scalar moment of 4.1 times 10¹⁷ N m, and a 2 s impulsive source time function. Four of the largest aftershocks also nucleated at depths of 25 km, as deduced from regional sPmp–Pmp times. The nodal planes are broadly consistent with the orientation of both the Lupa and Ufipa faults, which bound the Rukwa rift to the northeast and southwest, respectively. The rupture radius of the main shock, assuming a circular fault, is estimated to be 4 km with a corresponding stress drop of 6.5 MPa. Published estimates of crustal thickness beneath the Rukwa rift indicate that the foci of the main shock and aftershocks lie at least 10 km above the Moho. The presence of lower-crustal seismicity beneath the Rukwa rift suggests that the pre-rift thermal structure of the rifted crust has not been strongly modified by the rifting, at least to depths of 25 km.     

Three-dimensional seismic structure of the upper mantle beneath the central part of the Eurasian continent

This work is a study of the upper-mantle seismic structure beneath the central part of the Eurasian continent, including the northern Mongolia, Altai and Sayan orogenic areas and the Baikal rift zone. Seismic velocity models are reconstructed using the inverse teleseismic scheme. This scheme uses information from earthquakes located within the study area recorded by the Worldwide Network. The seismic anomaly structure is obtained for different volumes in the study area that partially overlap one another. Special attention has been paid to the reliability of the results: several noise and resolution comparisons are made.
The main results are as follows. (1) A cell structure of anomalies is observed beneath the Altai–Sayan region: positive, cold anomalies correspond to regions of recent orogenesis, negative anomalies are located beneath the depression of the Great Lakes in Mongolia and Hubsugul Lake. (2) A large negative anomaly is observed beneath the Hangai dome in Mongolia. (3) Strong velocity variations are obtained in a zone around Baikal Lake. A large negative anomaly is traced beneath the southern margin of the Siberian craton down to a depth of 700 km. Contrasting positive anomalies (4–5 per cent) are observed at a depth of 100–300 km beneath the Baikal rift. Our geodynamical interpretation of the velocity structure obtained beneath central Asia involves the existence of two processes in the mantle: thermal convection with regular cells, and a narrow plume beneath the southern border of the Siberian plate.     

A proposed granite batholith along the western flank of the North Sea Viking Graben

Summary. A pronounced positive magnetic anomaly of approximately 300 gamma occurs over the eastern edge of the East Shetland Platform at approximately 60°N, 1°E. After the removal of the regional gravity variation and the gravity effect of the known geological structure, it is found that this magnetic high correlates with a negative gravity residual anomaly of approximately 30 mGal. Seismic data indicate that these anomalies occur in an area of relatively shallow basement on the upthrown side of the main Viking Graben margin fault. The presence of a buried granite batholith of approximately 40 × 40km may explain the gravity, magnetic and seismic observations. The observed deviation of the fault defining the edge of the Viking Graben in the proximity of the proposed granite may be explained in terms of the tectonic influence of the buoyant granite block during the taphrogenic development of the graben.     

Source process and tectonic implications of the great 1975 North Atlantic earthquake

Summary. The Atlantic segment of the Africa–Europe plate boundary has usually been interpreted as a transform boundary on the basis of the bathymetric expression of the Gloria fault and dextral strike-slip first-motion mechanisms aligned along the Azores–Gibraltar line of seismicity. The 1975 May 26 earthquake ( M _s=7.9) was assumed to fit into this framework because it occurred in the general area of this line and has a similar first-motion focal mechanism (strike=288°, dip=72°, slip angle=184°). However, several anomalies cast doubt on this picture: the event is abnormally large for an oceanic transform event; a sizeable tsunami was excited; the aftershock area is unusually small for such a large event; and most significantly, the epicentre is 200 km south of the presumed plate boundary. The Rayleigh wave radiation pattern indicates a change in focal mechanism to one with a significant dip-slip component. The short duration of the source time history (20 s, as deconvolved from long-period P -waves), the lack of directivity in the Rayleigh waves, and the small one-day aftershock area suggest a fault length less than 80 km. One nodal plane of the earthquake is approximately aligned with the trace of an ancient fracture zone.
We have compared the Pasadena 1-90 record of the 1975 earthquake to that of the 1941 North Atlantic strike-slip earthquake (200 km to the NNW) and confirmed the large size of the 1941 event ( M =8.2). The non-colinear relationship of the 1975 and 1941 events suggests that there is no well-defined plate boundary between the Azores and Gibraltar. This interpretation is supported by the intraplate nature of both the 1975 event and the large 1969 thrust event 650 km to the east. This study also implies that the largest oceanic strike-slip earthquakes occur in old lithosphere in a transitional tectonic regime.     

Magnetotelluric studies in the Market Weighton area of eastern England

Summary Magnetotelluric measurements at periods from 30 to 1000s were made at eight locations in the Market Weighton (MW) area, along an east—west profile across gravity and magnetic anomalies. Dimensional parameters were developed for assessing the structural dimensionality of the electrical conductivity of the Earth from the data. One-dimensional inversion modelling techniques were employed to interpret the data at each site, and four-layer models were obtained to explain the main structure of the crust in the area studied. If it is assumed that all strata are unmagnetized then the results show that there is a highly resistive layer in the crust, the thickness of the highly resistive layer ranges from 12 km in the east to 44 km in the west with a large change in the middle near the MW site. A structural boundary lying north—south near MW was also indicated by the principal directions of rotated apparent resistivities and transfer functions. Both electrical conductivity and magnetic permeability contrast in the ground were considered in an attempt to interpret the observed variations in apparent resistivity at different periods.     

Travel-time anomalies in the mantle under the North Atlantic

Summary. Lateral heterogeneity exists in the Earth's mantle, and may result in seismic velocity anomalies up to several per cent. If convection cells and plumes extend down to the core, then these features may be associated with local inhomogeneities observed in the lower mantle.
Published data for direct and core-reflected P -wave residuals are used to delineate velocity anomalies in the middle—lower mantle under the North Atlantic. Differential ( PcP — P ) residuals indicate travel-time anomalies near the core—mantle transition, and may be due to core topography or lateral variations in velocity. It is assumed that the anomalies occur near the midpoints of the ray paths. The main source of error in the data set may arise from phases which have been identified incorrectly. Hence trend-surfaces are fitted to the residual data to show only the large-scale trends in anomaly values, with wavelengths of the order of 1000 km.
The Azores and Colorado hot spots occur in a region covered by the data. A possible interpretation of the trend maps is that an anomalous zone extends from a relatively fast region at the core boundary at 35° N, 50° W up to these hot spots, at about 30 degrees from the vertical. This may agree with the suggestion of Anderson that plumes are chemical rather than thermal in origin. If inclⁱned plumes do exist, the deviation from the ideal vertical plume or convection cell boundary may imply that lateral shear or other distortion effects exist in the mantle.     

Palaeomagnetism and Rb-Sr ages of the Ratagan and Comrie intrusions

Summary. Study of the palaeomagnetism of two complexes from the Newer Granite Suite in Scotland, at Ratagan (NW Highlands) and Comrie (central Highlands), reveals the variable nature of the natural remanence encountered in granodioritic intrusions and the surrounding metamorphic country rock. Forty-eight specimens from Ratagan, dated at 415 ± 5 Ma, gave a mean direction: D = 8°, I =−32°, and a palaeomagnetic south pole: 15°S, 346°E (δ p = 5°, δ m = 9°). Twenty-eight specimens from Comrie, dated at 408±5 Ma, gave a mean direction: D = 75°, I =−30°, and a palaeomagnetic south pole: 6°S, 287°E (δ p = 4°, δ m = 7°). These results have been compared with the established apparent polar wander path (APWP) for Britain. The Ratagan pole improves the reliability of the APWP but doubt remains as to whether the primary magnetization from Comrie represents a true late Silurian direction or whether it has been affected by post-cooling rotation, possibly associated with the nearby Highland Boundary Fault.     

Conductivity anomalies in the Baltic Shield in Finland

In 1981–84 six arrays of 30 or 31 magnetometers were operated on the Baitic Shield in central and southern Finland to deduce information about the electrical conductivity within the Earth's crust. The magnetometer sites cover the area with 20–60 km spacing allowing the identification of large-scale electrical structures within the crust. Each array recorded the three orthogonal magnetic field components on analogue film for about two months simultaneously at all the stations. Altogether 17 magnetic variation events of 2–6hr length have been digitized and analysed.
This paper includes results of the last array in south-western Finland, a comparison of two methods of induction vector estimation and combination of results from all the arrays. Four zones of anomalously high electrical conductivity have been observed. They are all interpreted as lying at depths greater than 5 km. The 'Oulu Anomaly' is wider than the others and rather short, about 100 km. The 'Southern Finland Anomaly' is probably a 500 km-long narrow zone. This and the 'Ostrobothnian Anomaly' surround three sides of the large Central Finland Granite area. The 'Outokumpu Anomaly' is probably deeper lying than the others. Blocks separated by these anomalies are presented. The blocks have different average resistivities.     

Architecture and evolution of syn-rift clastic depositional systems towards the tip of a major fault segment, Suez Rift, Egypt

ABSTRACT This paper investigates syn‐rift stratigraphic architecture and facies relationships along a 7 km long strike section towards the tip of a major, basin‐bounding normal fault segment (Thal Fault) in the Suez Rift, Egypt. In this location, the fault is composed of two precursor fault strands, Gushea and Abu Ideimat, linked by a jog or transfer fault. We document a Miocene syn‐rift succession, deposited more than c. 5.5 Myr after rift initiation, that is composed of a range of carbonate‐clastic facies associated with coarse‐grained deltaic, shoreface and offshore depositional systems. Key regionally correlatable stratal surfaces within this succession define time equivalent stratal units that exhibit variability in thickness and architecture, related to the interplay of both regional and local controls, in particular, the evolution of two, small‐scale (<6 km long) precursor fault strands (Gushea and Abu Ideimat). Integration of structural and stratigraphic data indicates that the boundary (relay ramp) between these two fault strands was a relative high during much of the rift event, with hard‐linkage and considerable displacement accumulation not occurring until at least c. 7.5 Myr after rift initiation. This is because: (i) the preserved stratigraphy is thinner in the hanging wall of the strand boundary; (ii) a eustatic sea‐level fall with an amplitude of 100 m generated more than 25 m of incision at the strand boundary, a region that has a final fault displacement of c. 600 m; and (iii) the fault strand boundary persisted as a footwall low and transport pathway for coarse‐grained deltas entering the basin. This study indicates that variability in stratal thickness and stratigraphic architecture towards the tip of the Thal Fault was related to the linkage history of two small‐scale (c. 6 km long) precursor fault segments. We suggest that similar, small‐scale stratal variability may occur repeatedly along the entire length of major basin‐bounding fault segments due to the process of fault growth by the linkage of smaller scale precursor strands.     

Seismotectonics and analysis of earthquakes from the Hindukush region

Summary. Over 80 earthquakes, exclusively from the Hindukush focal region, which were recorded at the Gauribidanur seismic array (GBA) have been used in this study. These events have similar epicentral distances and a narrow azimuthal range from GBA but varying focal depths from 10 to 240 km. A fault plane dipping steeply (75°) in the north-west direction and striking N 66° E has been investigated on the basis of the spatial distribution of earthquakes in two vertical planes through 68° E and 32° N. Short period P -wave recordings up to 30 s were processed using the adaptive cross-correlation filtering technique. Slowness and azimuthal anomalies were obtained for first arrivals. These anomalies show positive as well as negative bias and are attributed to a steep velocity gradient in the upper mantle between the 400–700 km depth range where the seismic rays have their maximum penetration. Relative time residuals between the stations of GBA owe their origin very near to the surface beneath the array. A search of the signals across the array revealed that most of the events occurring at shallower depths had complex signatures as compared to the deeper events. The structure near the source region, complicated source functions and the scattering confined to the crust—upper mantle near source are mainly responsible for the complexity of the Hindukush earthquakes as the transmission zone of the ray tubes from turning point to the recording station is practically the same.     

New Late Jurassic palaeomagnetic data from the northern Sichuan basin: implications for the deformation of the Yangtze craton

Upper Jurassic red sandstones and red siltstones were collected from 67 layers at 12 localities in the Penglaizhen formation. This formation is in the north of Bazhong county (31.8°N, 106.7°E) in the Sichuan basin, which is located in the northern part of the Yangtze craton. Thermal demagnetization isolated a high-temperature magnetic component with a maximum unblocking temperature of about 690 °C from 45 layers. The primary nature of the magnetization acquisition is ascertained through the presence of magnetostratigraphic sequences with normal and reversed polarities, as well as positive fold and reversal tests at the 95 per cent confidence level. The tilt-corrected mean direction of 36 layers is D = 20.0°, I = 28.8° with α ₉₅ = 5.8°. A Late Jurassic palaeomagentic pole at 64.7°N, 236.0°E with A ₉₅ = 7.0° is calculated from the palaeomagnetic directions of 11 localities. This pole position agrees with the two other Late Jurassic poles from the northern part of the Yangtze craton. A characteristic Late Jurassic pole is calculated from the three poles (68.6°N, 236.0°E with A ₉₅ = 8.0°) for the northern part of the Yangtze craton. This pole position is significantly different from that for the southern part of the Yangtze craton. This suggests that the southern part of the Yangtze craton was subjected to southward extrusion by 1700 ± 1000  km with respect to the northern part. Intracraton deformation occurred within the Yangtze craton.     

Tectono‐sedimentary evolution of the Plio‐Pleistocene Corinth rift,Greece

The onshore central Corinth rift contains a syn‐rift succession >3 km thick deposited in 5–15 km‐wide tilt blocks, all now inactive, uplifted and deeply incised. This part of the rift records upward deepening from fluviatile to lake‐margin conditions and finally to sub‐lacustrine turbidite channel and lobe complexes, and deep‐water lacustrine conditions (Lake Corinth) were established over most of the rift by 3.6 Ma. This succession represents the first of two phases of rift development – Rift 1 from 5.0–3.6 to 2.2–1.8 Ma and Rift 2 from 2.2–1.8 Ma to present. Rift 1 developed as a 30 km‐wide zone of distributed normal faulting. The lake was fed by four major N‐ to NE‐flowing antecedent drainages along the southern rift flank. These sourced an axial fluvial system, Gilbert fan deltas and deep lacustrine turbidite channel and lobe complexes. The onset of Rift 2 and abandonment of Rift 1 involved a 30 km northward shift in the locus of rifting. In the west, giant Gilbert deltas built into a deepening lake depocentre in the hanging wall of the newly developing southern border fault system. Footwall and regional uplift progressively destroyed Lake Corinth in the central and eastern parts of the rift, producing a staircase of deltaic and, following drainage reversal, shallow marine terraces descending from >1000 m to present‐day sea level. The growth, linkage and death of normal faults during the two phases of rifting are interpreted to reflect self‐organization and strain localization along co‐linear border faults. In the west, interaction with the Patras rift occurred along the major Patras dextral strike‐slip fault. This led to enhanced migration of fault activity, uplift and incision of some early Rift 2 fan deltas, and opening of the Rion Straits at ca. 400–600 ka. The landscape and stratigraphic evolution of the rift was strongly influenced by regional palaeotopographic variations and local antecedent drainage, both inherited from the Hellenide fold and thrust belt.     

An alternative interpretation of the Cayman trough evolution from a reidentification of magnetic anomalies

Magnetic data were collected during the Wilkes (1973) and Seacarib II (1987) cruises to the Cayman trough. A new interpretation of magnetic data is carried out. An isochron pattern is drawn up from our anomaly identifications. An early Eocene age (49 Ma, Ypresian) for Cayman trough opening is proposed instead of the late Oligocene or middle Eocene ages suggested by previous studies. Our plate tectonic reconstruction is simpler and fits the on-land geology (Jamaica and Cuba) and the tectonics. Our reconstruction shows a southward propagation of the spreading centre between magnetic anomalies 8 and 6 (26 and 20 Ma). The trough width increases by 30 km in this period. The southward propagation of the Cayman spreading centre from the Middle Oligocene to the Early Miocene induced the development of the restraining bend of the Swan Islands, the formation of a 1 km high scarp on the eastern trace of the Cayman trough transform fault (Walton fault) and the formation of a pull-apart basin (Hendrix pull-apart). Magnetic anomalies and magnetization maps give information about the deformation and the rocks. The proposed evolutionary model of the Cayman trough from the inception of seafloor spreading to the present configuration is presented in relation to the tectonic escape of the northern boundary of the Caribbean plate from the Maastrichtian to the Present.     

Structure and early evolution of the Arabian Sea and East Somali Basin

The Laxmi Ridge is a large-scale basement high buried beneath the sediments of the Indus Fan. The location of the ocean–continent transition (OCT) on this margin has previously been proposed at either the southern edge of the Laxmi Ridge or beyond it towards the India–Pakistan shelf. The former explains the margin-parallel Laxmi Basin as thinned continental crust, the latter as a failed rift of earlier seafloor spreading. To examine the structure of this margin, a reassessment of marine magnetic data has detailed seafloor-spreading magnetic anomalies prior to anomaly 24 in both the Arabian and East Somali basins. The previously identified anomaly 28 is not interpreted as a seafloor-spreading anomaly but as a magnetized basement feature adjacent to, and merging with, the ridge—the Laxmi Spur. New gravity models across the Laxmi Ridge and adjacent margin using ship and satellite data corroborate the existence of underplated crust beneath the Laxmi Ridge and Basin and the location of the OCT at the southern edge of the Ridge. The results are not compatible with the existence of a pre-anomaly 28 phase of seafloor spreading, although large-scale intrusions may be the origin of some of the basement features in the Laxmi Basin. The models also identify the Laxmi Spur as a low-density feature with a natural remanent magnetization (NRM) compatible with serpentinization. The Laxmi Ridge is mapped to the southeast, where it appears to terminate at a point coinciding with the appearance of E–W magnetic lineations and gravity anomalies at 15.5°N. Thereafter it becomes indistinct. This is interpreted as necessary in the reconstruction to the Mascarene Plateau to avoid continental overlap.     

Shear and compressional velocity models of the mantle from cluster analysis of long-period waveforms

We present a new technique for the efficient measurement of the traveltimes of long period body wave phases. The technique is based on the fact that all arrivals of a particular seismic phase are remarkably similar in shape for a single event. This allows the application of cross-correlation techniques that are usually used in a regional context to measure precise global differential times. The analysis is enhanced by the inclusion of a clustering algorithm that automatically clusters waveforms by their degree of similarity. This allows the algorithm to discriminate against unusual or distorted waveforms and makes for an extremely efficient measurement technique.
This technique can be applied to any seismic phase that is observed over a reasonably large distance range. Here, we present the results of applying the algorithm to the long-period channels of all data archived at the IRIS DMC from 1976 to 2005 for the seismic phases S and P (from 23° to 100°) and SS and PP (from 50° to 170°). The resulting large data sets are inverted along with existing surface wave and updated differential traveltime measurements for new mantle models of S and P velocity. The resolution of the new model is enhanced, particularly, in the mid-mantle where SS and PP turn. We find that slow anomalies in the central Pacific and Africa extend from the core–mantle boundary to the upper mantle, but their direct connection to surface hotspots is beyond our resolution. Furthermore, we find that fast anomalies that are likely associated with subducting slabs disappear between 1700 and 2500 km, and thus are not continuous features from the upper to lower mantle despite our extensive coverage and high resolution of the mid-mantle.     

The shear-wave velocity structure in the upper mantle beneath Eurasia

We develop an approach that allows us to invert for the mantle velocity structure within a finely parametrized region as a perturbation with respect to a low-resolution, global tomographic model. We implement this technique to investigate the upper-mantle structure beneath Eurasia and present a new model of shear wave velocity, parametrized laterally using spherical splines with ∼2.9° spacing in Eurasia and ∼11.5° spacing elsewhere. The model is obtained from a combined data set of surface wave phase velocities, long-period waveforms and body-wave traveltimes. We identify many features as narrow as few hundred kilometres in diameter, such as subducting slabs in eastern Eurasia and slow-velocity anomalies beneath tectonically active regions. In contrast to regional studies in which these features have been identified, our model encompasses the structure of the entire Eurasian continent. Furthermore, including mantle- and body-wave waveforms helped us constrain structures at depths larger than 250 km, which are poorly resolved in earlier models. We find that up to +9 per cent faster-than-average anomalies within the uppermost ∼200 km of the mantle beneath cratons and some orogenic regions are separated by a sharp gradient zone from deeper, +1 to +2 per cent anomalies. We speculate that this gradient zone may represent a boundary separating the lithosphere from the continental root, which might be compositionally distinct from the overlying lithosphere and remain stable either due to its compositional buoyancy or due to higher viscosity compared with the suboceanic mantle. Our regional model of anisotropy is not significantly different from the global one.     

Upper mantle heterogeneities beneath Central Europe

Summary. An inversion of ISC travel-time data from selected earthquakes in the distance range 30°-90° to 53 stations in Central Europe has been used to model velocity down to 600 km depth. The model explains 0.1–0.2s of the residuals, as for other array studies, leaving 0.5 s unexplained as noise. The uppermost 100 km of the mantle and crust contains inhomogeneities that correlate remarkably well with the geology. This may be due to deep-seated thermal anomalies or, in some areas, to delays introduced by passage of the rays through sedimentary cover. The deeper anomalies are smaller and unrelated to those in the lithosphere, which suggests that the asthenosphere is decoupled from the rigid lithosphere. The structure at 600 km depth is again quite inhomogeneous and might be due to undulations of the 650 km discontinuity. The models show some suggestion of a high velocity slab trending from east to west beneath the Alps.     

Crustal tomographic imaging of a transitional continental rift: the Ethiopian rift

In this study we image crustal structure beneath a magmatic continental rift to understand the interplay between crustal stretching and magmatism during the late stages of continental rifting: the Main Ethiopian Rift (MER). The northern sector of this region marks the transition from continental rifting in the East African Rift to incipient seafloor spreading in the southern Red Sea and western Gulf of Aden. Our local tomographic inversion exploits 172 broad-band instruments covering an area of 250 × 350 km of the rift and adjacent plateaux. The instruments recorded a total of 2139 local earthquakes over a 16-month period. Several synthetic tests show that resolution is good between 12 and 25 km depth (below sea level), but some horizontal velocity smearing is evident along the axis of the Main Ethiopian Rift below 16 km. We present a 3-D P -wave velocity model of the mid-crust and present the first 3-D Vp / Vs model of the region. Our models show high P -wave velocities (6.5 km s⁻¹) beneath the axis of the rift at a depth of 12–25 km. The presence of high Vp / Vs ratios (1.81–1.84) at the same depth range suggest that they are cooled mafic intrusions. The high Vp / Vs values, along with other geophysical evidence, suggest that dyking is pervasive beneath the axis of the rift from the mid-crustal depths to the surface and that some portion of partial melt may exist at lower crustal depths. Although the crustal stretching factor across the Main Ethiopian Rift is ∼1.7, our results indicate that magma intrusion in narrow zones accommodates a large proportion of extensional strain, with similarities to slow-spreading mid-ocean ridge processes.