Thermal Imaging of the Lithosphere beneath Arabian Shield and Implications for "Harrats" Volcanic Field

Abstract

<p><span>Widespread Cenozoic volcanisms in the Arabian shield including “Harrats” have been referring to lithospheric thinning and/or mantle plume activity as a result of Red Sea rift-related extension.</span></p><p><span>A fundamental key in understanding the deriving mechanism of these volcanic activities and its relationship to 2007-2009 seismic swarms required a reliable model of the present-day lithospheric thermo-chemical structure.</span></p><p><span>In this work, we modeled crustal and lithospheric thickness variation as well as the variations in thermal, composition, seismic velocity, and density of the lithosphere beneath the Arabian shield within a thermodynamically self - consistent framework.</span></p><p><span>The resulting thermal and density structures show large variations, revealing strong asymmetry between the Arabian shield and Arabian platform within the Arabian Plate.</span></p><p><span>We model negative density anomalies associated with the hot mantle beneath Harrats, which coincides with the modelled lithosphere thinned (~ 65 km) as a result of the second stage of lithospheric thinning following the initial Red Sea extension.</span></p>