TECTONIC CONFIGURATION OF THE MALAWI RIFT REVEALED FROM CRUSTAL THICKNESS MODEL
Abstract
In this study, a crustal thickness model of the Malawi rift is created from the inversion of the EIGEN-6C4 global gravity model. The regularized inversion based on the Gauss- Newton formulation of Bott's equation is employed to resolve the Moho topography. The inversion process uses tesseroids to account for the earth's curvature. Moho depth modeling for such a massive landmass cannot ignore the earth's curvature. The Bouguer effect, terrain effect, and gravity effect due to sediments are also corrected and calculated in a spherical approximation. The resulting crustal thickness model was validated seismology.
Research summary
In this study, a crustal thickness model of the Malawi rift is created from the inversion of the EIGEN-6C4 global gravity model. The regularized inversion based on the Gauss- Newton formulation of Bott's equation is employed to resolve the Moho topography. Moho depth modeling for such a massive landmass cannot ignore the earth's curvature. The Bouguer effect, terrain effect, and gravity effect due to sediments are also corrected and calculated in a spherical approximation.