Moho depth estimation of northern of East African Rift System

Abstract

Abstract The northern part of the East African Rift System is characterized by depleted Moho depth and thermally thinned lithosphere. This research aims to determine the Moho depth of the study area through non-linear gravity inversion and cross-validation with seismic Moho estimates. The study utilized gravity data to obtain the gravity anomaly of the Moho interface, a topographic grid for removing topographic effects, a crustal model to determine total sediment thickness and its gravitational effect, and seismic Moho depth for constraining the forward model and cross-validation. The estimated Moho depth of the study area ranges between 5 km (in the Indian Ocean) to 45 km (in the Ethiopian Highlands), with slight variation compared to seismic Moho relief. This is because the reference level, calculated for the thinner part of the study region, underestimates the entire area. Upwelling magma in the Eastern branches of the EARS may also incur slight variation in the estimated Moho depth; rifting, volcanism, melt intrusion, magmatic uplift, and tectonic setting all influence the Moho depth of the study area. Furthermore, reverberations affect most seismic Moho estimations in the region. The slight variation can be mitigated by improving the gravity network for accurate validation and precise heat flow measurement to correctly identify magmatic anomalies and density contrasts. Additionally, applying reverberation removal techniques in the study region could improve seismic Moho estimation.