Details of the Abstract
| Title of paper | Three dimensional electrical structural of Longonot volcano in the East African Rift Valley and its implications for the formation mechanism of continental rift volcanoes |
| List of authors | Lingqiang Zhao 1, Weiliang Huang 2, Jianbing Peng 2, Yan Zhan 3, Zhijie Jia 2, Jiewei Zhan 2, Xiangyu Sun 3, and Qingliang Wang 1 |
| Affiliation(s) |
1 The Second Monitoring and Application Center, China Earthquake Administration, Xi’an 710043, China, 2 School of Geological Engineering and Geomatics, Chang'an University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China 3State Key Laboratory of Earthquake Dynamics, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing, China |
| Summary | The Great Rift Valley, as the largest fault zone on Earth, is known as the "scar of the Earth" and is one of the areas with the strongest modern extensional activity on Earth. Longonot volcano is located in the central southern part of the East African Rift Valley and is also the latest component of the valley. GPS speed shows that the stretching rate in the area exceeds 7mm/a. There are also multiple large ground fissures in the area, which seriously damage the local infrastructure such as roads. In addition, the area is also extremely rich in geothermal resources. During December 2023, we conducted detailed broadband three-dimensional magnetotelluric research on the Longonot volcano and its surrounding areas, and obtained high-resolution resistivity models. We speculate that the magma system of Longonot volcano rapidly rises diagonally from the asthenosphere mantle to the interior of the crust through decompression and melting, leading to eruption. The continuous upwelling of the magma system also leads to the formation of a large number of surface cracks and a series of secondary geological hazards. These results can not only provide deep geophysical basis for predicting the risk of Longonot volcanic eruption, but also provide inspiration for understanding the mechanism of active continental rift formation. They also indicate that there may be huge geothermal resource potential in the region, which is crucial for Kenya, which lacks electricity and other natural resources. |
| Session Keyword | 4.0 Tectonics and geodynamics, including magmatism |
| File upload |
4.0_three_dimensional_electri_lingqiang.pdf
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