The Seismic Structure of the Crust of Madagascar

Abstract:

The structure of Madagascar's crust is determined using both body wave receiver functions as well as an analysis of surface waves using ambient-noise and two-plane-wave earthquake surface waves analyses. The primary data used are from the 2011-2013 MACOMO (Madagascar, the Comoros, and Mozambique) broadband seismic array from the PASSCAL program of IRIS (Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology), funded by the NSF. Additional data came from the RHUM-RUM project (led by G. Barruol and K. Sigloch), the Madagascar Seismic Profile (led by F. Tilmann), and the GSN. The crustal structure of Madagascar, which had previously only been inferred from a gravity survey assuming isostasy, shows a strong correlation with its tectonic history. Crustal thicknesses are greatest, reaching 45 km, along the spine of Madagascar’s mountains, which run north-south across the island. Crustal thicknesses thin to the east and west, which are both regions of tectonic separation, however, with very different results. Extensive crustal thinning occurred along the western coasts of Madagascar when the island rifted away from mainland Africa beginning 160 Ma ago. The crust is as thin as 20 km here, but the thickness of basin sediments is as great as 9 km, with the crystalline basement continental crust thinning to 12 km at its thinnest. Along the east coast, the crustal thickness is within the 33-38 km range, but it is thickest in the two places where mesoarchaean crust was rifted off from the Indian subcontinent when it broke away from Madagascar. Surface wave studies show that velocities beneath Madagascar are generally slow, when compared to global models such as AK135. This appears to be due to the occurrence of Cenozoic intraplate volcanism in three regions of Madagascar (north, central, and southwest), each of which has strong underlying seismic low-velocity anomalies in the lithospheric mantle and asthenosphere.