Southern Tanganyika Active Rift Seismicity (STARS) Project

Abstract

Global seismic networks document frequent and unusually deep earthquakes beneath the Western rift, East Africa. The deep seismicity means that we can use earthquakes to probe the geometry and kinematics of fault systems throughout the crust, and to understand the distribution of strain between large offset border fault systems and intrabasinal faults. During June 2014 to September 2015 we deployed and operated a network of 13 seismic stations at the southern end of the Tanganyika rift, the TANGA network. Data quality and recovery with good, with anthropogenic noise the largest noise source due to station deployment primarily in villages. We use data from our own TANGA network, as well as data from nearby networks to determine the geometry and kinematics of active faults bounding and linking the southern two basins of the Tanganyika rift. We also estimate crustal thickness variations and Vp/Vs ratios using P to S receiver function analyses. Additionally, we image the shear wave velocity structure of the crust and upper mantle using ambient and surface wave tomography.