Crustal Structure Across the Okavango Rift Zone, Botswana: Initial Results From the PRIDE-SEISORZ Active-Source Seismic Profile

Abstract:

The PRIDE project aims to understand the processes of continental rift initiation and evolution by analyzing along-axis trends in the southern portion of the East Africa Rift System, from Botswana through Zambia and Malawi. The SEISORZ active-source seismic component of PRIDE focused on the Okavango Rift Zone (ORZ) in northwestern Botswana, with the main goal of imaging the crustal structure across the ORZ. This will allow us to estimate total crustal extension, determine the pattern and amount of thinning, assess the possible presence of melt within the rift zone, and assess the contrasts in crustal blocks across the rift, which closely follows the trend of a fold belt. In November 2014 we conducted a crustal-scale, 450-km-long seismic refraction/wide-angle reflection profile consisting of 19 sources (shots in 30-m-deep boreholes) spaced ~25 km apart from each other, and 900 receivers (IRIS/PASSCAL “Texan” dataloggers and 4.5Hz geophones) with ~500 m spacing. From NW to SE, the profile crosses several tectonic domains: the Congo craton, the Damara metamorphic belt and the Ghanzi-Chobe fold belt where the axis of the ORZ is located, and continues into the Kalahari craton. The record sections display clear crustal refraction (Pg) and wide-angle Moho reflection (PmP) phases for all 17 of the good-quality shots, and a mantle refraction arrival (Pn), with the Pg-PmP-Pn triplication appearing at 175 km offset. There are distinct changes in the traveltime and amplitude of these phases along the transect, and on either side of the axis, that seem to correlate with sharp transitions across tectonic terrains. Initial modeling suggests: (1) the presence of a sedimentary half-graben structure at the rift axis beneath the Okavango delta, bounded to the SE by the Kunyere-Thamalakane fault system; (2) faster crustal Vp in the domains to the NW of the ORZ; and (3) thicker crust (45-50 km) at both ends of the profile within the Congo and Kalahari craton domains than at the ORZ and beneath the fold belts. At the meeting we will present results based on forward modeling of the traveltimes of sedimentary, crustal, and mantle phases.