Lithospheric drip magmatism and magma-assisted rifting: a case study in the Western Rift, East Africa
Abstract
The East African Rift System (EARS) is earth's largest continental divergent boundary and an unparalleled natural laboratory for understanding magmatism related to successful continental rifting. Classic views of continental rifting suggest that faulting and extension are facilitated by ascending magmas that weaken the lithosphere thermally and structurally within basin-bounding accommodation zones. In the EARS Western Rift (WR), many volcanic fields are not aligned along rift-bounding faults, and magma compositions lack evidence for asthenospheric inputs expected along lithosphere-penetrating fault systems. We note that compositional input from the Cenozoic Afar mantle plume is not recognized convincingly in WR mafic alkaline lavas1. Rather, magma compositions demonstrate significant input from anciently metasomatized sub-continental lithospheric mantle (SCLM). Destabilization and foundering of metasomatized SCLM has an increasingly recognized role in continental magmatism worldwide, producing volatile-rich, alkaline volcanics when drips of foundered SCLM devolatilize and melt on descent. This magmatism can lead to faulting: the lithospheric thinning that results from this process may play a role in physical aspects of rifting, contrasting with faulting facilitated by asthenospheric melts. Geochemical and geophysical evidence indicates that drip magmatism has occurred in several EARS provinces, including Turkana, Chyulu Hills, and in Afar2 where it is geographically coincident with successful rifting. We present bulk geochemical data that suggest drip melting of metasomatized SCLM is occurring in several WR volcanic fields. We focus on Bufumbira (Uganda), where mafic lavas are derived from garnet+phlogopite+amphibole+zircon-bearing pyroxenite, indicating a deep metasomatized SCLM source. Isotopic and trace element data suggest that extent of melting increased with depth of melting, a signature of lithospheric drip. We propose that drip magmatism is an important driver of volcanism in the early history of these igneous provinces and may be fundamentally related to the onset of successful rifting. 1. Graham, D. et al. Goldschmidt Conference Abstracts (2011). 2. Furman, T., et al. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 185, 418-434 (2016).
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017AGUFM.T41E..02P
- Keywords:
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- 1209 Tectonic deformation;
- GEODESY AND GRAVITY;
- 7230 Seismicity and tectonics;
- SEISMOLOGY;
- 8109 Continental tectonics: extensional;
- TECTONOPHYSICS;
- 8178 Tectonics and magmatism;
- TECTONOPHYSICS