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September 2005 mega-dike emplacement in the Manda-Harraro nascent oceanic rift (Afar depression)
Institute of Geophysics Space Science and Astronomy, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, USA
School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Earth Institute at Columbia University, Palisades, New York, USA
Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Paris, France
Eritrea Institute of Technology, Asmara, Eritrea
National Yemen Seismological Observatory Center, Dahamar, Yemen
Local and regional seismic data constrain the space-time history of deformation and likely magma sources for the September 2005 diking episode in the Manda-Harraro rift zone of the Afar depression. The results distinguish three centers from which subhorizontal dike propagation progressed: two distinct sources around the Dabbahu-Gab'ho Volcanic Complex (DVC) and the third at the Ado'Ale Volcanic Complex (AVC). The temporal development of seismicity shows that the majority of the dike volume is fed from beneath AVC and migrated laterally with an average rate of 15–30 cm/sec. This dike emplacement at a divergent plate boundary is unusual due to the rapid intrusion of a large volume of magma and the large amount of seismic moment release. We interpret this volcano-tectonic crisis as a complex interaction of multiple magma plumbing sources and lithosphere at a plate boundary under extension. Such repeated episodes will eventually shape the incipient oceanic rift morphology.
Received 15 June 2009; accepted 19 August 2009; published 20 October 2009.
Citation: (2009), September 2005 mega-dike emplacement in the Manda-Harraro nascent oceanic rift (Afar depression), Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L20306, doi:10.1029/2009GL039605.
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