Michigan State University

The geological record at rifts and margins worldwide often reveals considerable along-strike variations in volumes of extruded and intruded igneous rocks. These variations may be the result of asthenospheric heterogeneity, variations in rate, and timing of extension; alternatively, preexisting plate architecture and/or the evolving kinematics of extension during breakup may exert first-order control on magmatism. The Main Ethiopian Rift (MER) in East Africa provides an excellent opportunity to address this dichotomy: it exposes, along strike, several sectors of asynchronous rift development from continental rifting in the south to incipient oceanic spreading in the north. Here we perform studies of volcanic cone density and rift obliquity along strike in the MER. By synthesizing these new data in light of existing geophysical, geochemical, and petrological constraints on magma generation and emplacement, we are able to discriminate between tectonic and mantle geodynamic controls on the geological record of a newly forming magmatic rifted margin. The timing of rift sector development, the three-dimensional focusing of melt, and the ponding of plume material where the rift dramatically narrows each influence igneous intrusion and volcanism along the MER. However, rifting obliquity plays an important role in localizing intrusion into the crust beneath en echelon volcanic segments. Along-strike variations in volumes and types of igneous rocks found at rifted margins thus likely carry information about the development of strain during rifting, as well as the physical state of the convecting mantle at the time of breakup.

The spatial distribution of monogenetic vents and the geochemistry of their erupted products can be used to probe heterogeneity in lithospheric strain across a rift. We show that Quaternary volcanic belts in the central Main Ethiopian Rift (MER) exhibit differences in vent fractal clustering with an exponent indicative of more clustering and a shallower magma reservoir for the Wonji Fault Belt (WFB), in comparison to the Silti-Debre Zeyit Fault Zone (SDFZ). The range of lengths that exhibit vent fractal clustering is bounded by (1) a lower cutoff of few hundreds of meters that correlates with the depth of emplacement of intrusive material and is likely linked to evolving silicic magma systems and (2) an upper cutoff which we interpret to scale with the depth from which dikes originate just prior to eruption: ~10 km for WFB and ~7 km for SDFZ. We attribute this difference to strain partitioning within the MER, which favors dike formation at greater depths beneath the more highly strained eastern margin of the MER (below the WFB), in comparison to the western rift margin (below the SDFZ). Statistical analysis of monogenetic fields in the MER show, when reviewed in light of a priori geophysical and geodetic data, that the plumbing system of monogenetic volcanism style is strongly controlled by crustal strain state. Such statistical techniques may have application in probing the magma systems of other environments where less geophysical or geochemical controls exist.

The transition from mechanical thinning toward focused magmatic intrusion during continental rifting is poorly constrained; the tectonically active Main Ethiopian Rift (MER) provides an ideal study locale to address this issue. The presence of linear magmatic-tectonic belts in the relatively immature central MER may indicate that the transition from mechanical to magmatic rifting is more spatially distributed and temporally protracted than has previously been assumed. Here we examine lava geochemistry and vent distribution of a Pliocene-Quaternary linear magmatic chain along the western margin of the central MER—the Akaki Magmatic Zone. Our results show limited variability in parental magma that evolve in a complex polybaric fractionation system that has not changed significantly over the past 3 Ma. Our results suggest the following: (1) channeling of plume material and the localization of shear- or topography-induced porosity modulates melt intrusion into the continental lithosphere. (2) Pre-existing lithospheric structures may act as catalysts for intrusion of magmas into the lithospheric mantle. (3) The midcrustal to upper crustal strain regime dictates the surface orientation of volcanic vents. Therefore, although linear magmatic belts like those in the central MER may young progressively toward the rift axis and superficially resemble oceanic style magmatism, they actually represent prebreakup magmatism on continental crust. The oldest linear magmatic belts observed seismically and magnetically at the edge of the ocean basins thus may not, as is often assumed, actually mark the onset of seafloor spreading.