The lithospheric architecture of Africa: Seismic tomography, mantle petrology, and tectonic evolution

Abstract

We present a new analysis of the lithospheric architecture of Africa, and its evolution from ca. 3.6 Ga to the present. Upper-lithosphere domains, generated or reworked in different time periods, have been delineated by integrating regional tectonics and geochronology with geophysical data (magnetic, gravity, and seismic). The origins and evolution of lower-lithosphere domains are interpreted from a high-resolution global shear-wave tomographic model, using thermal/compositional modeling and xenolith/xenocryst data from volcanic rocks. These data are integrated to map the distribution of ancient highly depleted subcontinental lithospheric mantle (SCLM), zones of younger or strongly modified SCLM and zones of active mantle upwelling, and to relate these to the evolution of the upper lithosphere domains.