2022
DOI: 10.31223/x5562s
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Thermochemical structure and evolution of cratonic lithosphere in central and southern Africa

Abstract: The thermochemical structure of the subcontinental mantle holds crucial information on its origin and evolution that can inform energy and mineral exploration strategies, natural haz-ard mitigation and evolutionary models of the Earth1−4. However, imaging the fine-scale thermochemical structure of continental lithosphere remains a major challenge. Here we combine multiple land and satellite datasets via thermodynamically-constrained inversions to obtain a high-resolution thermochemical model of central and sou… Show more

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Cited by 6 publications
(9 citation statements)
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References 39 publications
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“…For example, Afonso et al. (2022) link the absence of volcanism toward the northern end of the Tanzanian craton to a forced sub‐lithospheric downwelling, generated in response to the large Afar upwelling. Furthermore, the entire western margin of Africa hosts only limited Neogene volcanism, despite having long‐lived cratonic margins (e.g., West African, Congo and Kaapvaal cratons), which should provide a favorable setting for edge‐driven convection.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…For example, Afonso et al. (2022) link the absence of volcanism toward the northern end of the Tanzanian craton to a forced sub‐lithospheric downwelling, generated in response to the large Afar upwelling. Furthermore, the entire western margin of Africa hosts only limited Neogene volcanism, despite having long‐lived cratonic margins (e.g., West African, Congo and Kaapvaal cratons), which should provide a favorable setting for edge‐driven convection.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Of the 3.87% of the analyzed clusters that occur on dry, depleted lithosphere (Type I), 55% of those come from a single place, the Gibeon fields in Namibia. Geophysical estimation of the geotherm at this cluster has the highest misfit rate compared to the xenolith thermobarometric data (Figure S16 in Supporting Information ), suggesting this region might have experienced lithospheric thinning post‐emplacement (Afonso et al., 2022). The remaining Type I clusters are all in South Australia, namely the Cleve, Mt Hope and Truro clusters.…”
Section: Kimberlite Emplacement Typesmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…The data obtained in this work reinforces the occurrence of the cratonic 40 mW/m 2 geothermal gradient in the region that may be related to a process by thermal relaxation of the lithospheric mantle after the Paleo to Mesoproterozoic tectonothermal events of the southwestern Amazonian Craton until the sampling of the xenoliths by the magma in the Permian-Triassic. This process is reported worldwide through the study of mantle xenoliths (e.g., Pintér et al 2015;Guo et al 2018;Afonso et al 2022).…”
Section: Geothermal Gradientsmentioning
confidence: 92%