The Main Ethiopian Rift is part of the East African Rift with its unique geological setting as an active continental breakup zone. The Main Ethiopian Rift includes a number of understudied active volcanoes with potentially high risks for this densely populated part of Ethiopia. Using newly recorded (2016) magnetotelluric data along a 110 km long transect crossing the whole rift, we present a regional 2‐D model of electrical resistivity of the crust. The derived model endorses a previous study that drew the surprising conclusion that there was no highly conductive region associated with a magma chamber directly under the central rift volcano Aluto. This has implications for the estimation of the amount of magma present, its water content, and the storage conditions, as the volcano is actively deforming and results from seismicity and CO2 degassing studies all indicate magma storage at about 5 km depth. Additionally, the existence of a strong conductor under the Silti Debre Zeyt Fault Zone approximately 40 km to the northwest of the rift center is confirmed. It is located with a slight offset to the Butajira volcanic field, which hosts a number of scoria cones at the boundary between the NW plateau and the rift. The magnetotelluric model reveals different electrical structures below the eastern and western rift shoulders. The western border is characterized by a sharp lateral contrast between the resistive plateau and the more conductive rift bottom, whereas the eastern flank shows a subhorizontal layered sequence of volcanic deposits and a smooth transition toward the shoulder.

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Space weather poses a hazard to grounded electrical infrastructure such as high voltage (HV) transformers, through the induction of geomagnetically induced currents (GICs). Modeling GICs requires knowledge of the source magnetic field and the Earth's electrical conductivity structure, in order to calculate the geoelectric fields generated during magnetic storms, as well as knowledge of the topology of the HV network. Direct measurement of GICs at the ground neutral in substations is possible with a Hall effect probe, but such data are not widely available. To validate our HV network model, we use the differential magnetometer method (DMM) to measure GICs in the 400 kV grid of Great Britain. We present DMM measurements for the 26 August 2018 storm at a site in eastern Scotland with up to 20 A recorded. The line GIC correlates well with Hall probe measurements at a local transformer, though they differ in amplitude by an order of magnitude (a maximum of ∼2 A). We deployed a long-period magnetotelluric (MT) instrument to derive the local impedance tensor which can be used to predict the geoelectric field from the recorded magnetic field. Using the MT-derived electric field estimates, we model GICs within the network, accounting for the difference in magnitude between the DMM-measured line currents and earth currents at the local substation. We find that the measured line and earth GICs match the expected GICs from our network model, confirming that detailed knowledge of the complex network topology and its resistance parameters is essential for accurately computing GICs.Plain Language Summary Large geomagnetic storms create time-varying magnetic fields, which induce secondary electric fields in the conductive Earth resulting in geomagnetically induced currents (GICs). The high voltage (HV) power transmission network is connected to the Earth at grounding points in substations. These offer a low-resistance path for GICs to flow into the power network, potentially causing the transformers to malfunction. It is possible to directly measure GICs at substations using Hall effect probes, but due to cost and operational reasons, at present only four substations in the United Kingdom are monitored. Therefore, we have developed a new instrument to measure GICs indirectly using two magnetometers, one placed under the HV line and another a few hundred meters away. By examining the differences between the magnetometers, we work out the additional current flowing in the HV line. We compare our measurements to observations made by a Hall probe at a nearby transformer during a geomagnetic storm in August 2018. The GICs from the line measurements match the shape of the Hall probe, but there is a difference in amplitude. Further analysis shows that the amplitude differences arise from the resistance and earthing properties of the individual HV lines and transformers within the power network.

Significant geoelectric fields are produced by the interaction of rapidly varying magnetic fields with the conductive Earth, particularly during intense geomagnetic activity. Though usually harmless, large or sustained geoelectric fields can damage grounded infrastructure such as high-voltage transformers and pipelines via Geomagnetically Induced Currents (GICs). A key aspect of understanding the effects of space weather on grounded infrastructure is through the spatial and temporal variation of the geoelectric field. Globally, there are few long-term monitoring sites of the geoelectric field, so in 2012 measurements of the horizontal surface field were started at Lerwick, Eskdalemuir and Hartland observatories in the UK. Between 2012 and 2020, the maximum value of the geoelectric field observed was around 1 V/km in Lerwick, 0.5 V/km in Eskdalemuir and 0.1 V/km in Hartland during the March 2015 storm. These long-term observations also allow comparisons with models of the geoelectric field to be made.  We use the measurements to compute magnetotelluric impedance transfer functions at each observatory for periods from 20 to 30,000 seconds. These are then used to predict the geoelectric field at the observatory sites during selected storm times that match the recorded fields very well (correlation around 0.9). We also compute geoelectric field values from a thin-sheet model of Britain, accounting for the diverse geological and bathymetric island setting. We find the thin-sheet model captures the peak and phase of the band-passed geoelectric field reasonably well, with linear correlation of around 0.4 in general. From these two modelling approaches, we generate geoelectric field values for historic storms (March 1989 and October 2003) and find the estimates of past peak geoelectric fields of up to 1.75 V/km in Eskdalemuir. However, evidence from high voltage transformer GIC measurements during these storms suggests these estimates are likely to represent an underestimate of the true value. p, li { white-space: pre-wrap; }

We have evaluated results from a study combining airborne z-axis tipper electromagnetic (ZTEM) and ground-based magnetotelluric (MT) data to image an epithermal system in British Columbia. The spatially coincident use of these two methods allowed for a direct comparison of both data sets in the overlapping frequency band and showed that both measurements were consistent. Inversion of just the ZTEM data suffered from the lack of electric field amplitude information, which could be provided by the MT data. Three-dimensional inversion modeling of the two individual data sets was performed. Models of electrical resistivity derived from both data sets were consistent and could be correlated with the geological and structural setting of the mineralization. Gold is associated with disseminated pyrite and marcasite in quartz-sericite-altered felsic volcanic rocks and intrusions, especially near the contact with mafic volcanic rocks and a late diorite intrusion. The quartz-sericite alteration yields a conductivity anomaly, relative to the more resistive mafic country rocks. Although ZTEM and MT do not possess the resolution of the geologic model derived from borehole data, our model agrees well with a regional assessment of the deposit.