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1 Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
2 Department of Geological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, USA
3 Department of Geosciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas 79409, USA
4 Seismological Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
Upper mantle seismic velocity variations beneath northern Tanzania coupled with the structure of the 410 and 660 km discontinuities reveal a 200–400-km-wide thermal anomaly extending into but not necessarily through the transition zone beneath the eastern branch of the East African rift system. This finding is not easily explained by small-scale mantle convection induced by passive stretching of the lithosphere or by a broad thermal upwelling extending from the lower mantle into the upper mantle, but it can be attributed to a mantle plume, provided that a plume head is present under the lithospheric keel of the Tanzania craton. A plume interpretation for the deep thermal anomaly is supported by evidence for mantle having the geochemical characteristics of a plume at >150 km depth beneath northern Tanzania.
Key Words: plume • rift • east Africa • craton
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