International audienceShallow magma reservoirs exist in the crust beneath volcanoes and mid-ocean ridges, yet there are no reports of extensive magma bodies within the uppermost mantle. Indeed the buoyancy of magma should cause it to intrude into the crust, preventing it from ponding in the mantle below. The Dabbahu magmatic segment in Afar, Ethiopia, marks the late stages of continental rifting. This segment has been active since 2005 and has experienced repeated magma intrusions1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Here we use magnetotelluric data to image magma bodies beneath it. We identify a 30-km-wide region of very high electrical conductivity that reaches down to about 35 km depth. We interpret this region as a large volume of magma of at least 500 km3 that extends well into the mantle and contains about 13% melt fraction. The magma volume is orders of magnitude larger than that intruded during a typical rifting episode, implying that the magma reservoir persists for several tens of thousands of years. This is in marked contrast to the situation beneath mid-ocean ridges, where melt supply is thought to be episodic7, 8, 9, 10, 11. Large magma reservoirs within the mantle may therefore be responsible for the localization of strain that accompanies the final stages of continental break-up

No abstract

This paper presents broadband magnetotelluric data collected along profiles over two magmatic segments comprising part of the subaerial Red Sea arm of the Afar triple junction. One of these segments has been active since late 2005 and the other segment is currently inactive. After robust processing and galvanic distortion analysis, we found that the data passed the twodimensional subsurface resistivity modelling criteria. Profiles across the segments had welldefined geoelectrical strike directions parallel to the local rift axes. Data from the northern end of the active segment had a more ambiguous strike oblique to the profile and rift axes, but the direction did not have a severe impact on the deduced model. All three models displayed prominent zones of low resistivity, interpreted as arising from magma and partial melt. Petrological information has been used to constrain the resistivity of the parent melt and hence to estimate the melt fractions from the bulk resistivity. The total amount of melt estimated beneath the profile crossing the active segment (c. 500 km 3 ) is approximately an order of magnitude greater than that beneath the profile crossing the currently inactive rift. This implies that the availability of magma is at least one factor affecting whether a rift segment is active.

No abstract

This article describes an investigation of interactive narrative in virtual reality (VR) through Samuel Beckett's theatrical text Play. Actors are captured in a green screen environment using free-viewpoint video (FVV). Built in a game engine, the scene is complete with binaural spatial audio and six degrees of freedom of movement. The project explores how ludic qualities in the original text elicit the conversational and interactive specificities of the digital medium. The work affirms potential for interactive narrative in VR, opens new experiences of the text and highlights the reorganization of the author-audience dynamic.