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Mohr, P. A.

Publications and source records attributed to Mohr, P. A..

At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1976

Volcano spacings and lithospheric attenuation in the Eastern Rift of Africa

The Eastern Rift of Africa runs the gamut of crustal and lithospheric attenuation from undeformed shield through attenuated rift margin to active neo-oceanic spreading zones. It is therefore peculiarly well suited to an examination of relationships between volcano spacings and crust/lithosphere thickness. Although lithospheric thickness is not well known in Eastern Africa, it appears to have direct expression in the surface spacing of volcanoes for any given tectonic regime. This applies whether the volcanoes are essentially basaltic, silicic, or alkaline-carbonatitic. No evidence is found for control of volcano sites by a pre-existing fracture grid in the crust.

Mohr, P. A.↗
NASA NTRS1976

The Sagatu Ridge dike swarm, Ethiopian rift margin

A swarm of dikes forms the core of the Sagatu Ridge, a 70-km-long topographic feature elevated to more than 4000 m above sea level and 1500 m above the level of the Eastern (Somalian) plateau. The ridge trends NNE and lies about 50 km east of the northeasterly trending rift-valley margin. Intrusion of the dikes and buildup of the flood-lava pile, largely hawaiitic but with trachyte preponderant in the final stages, occurred during the late Pliocene-early Pleistocene and may have been contemporaneous with downwarping of the protorift trough to the west. The ensuing faulting that formed the present rift margin, however, bypassed the ridge. The peculiar situation and orientation of the Sagatu Ridge, and its temporary existence as a line of crustal extension and voluminous magmatism, are considered related to a powerful structural control by a major line of Precambrian crustal weakness, well exposed further south. Transverse rift structures of unknown type appear to have limited the development of the ridge to the north and south.

Mohr, P. A.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Site evaluation for laser satellite-tracking stations

Twenty-six locations for potential laser satellite-tracking stations, four of them actually already occupied in this role, are reviewed in terms of their known local and regional geology and geophysics. The sites are also considered briefly in terms of weather and operational factors. Fifteen of the sites qualify as suitable for a stable station whose motions are likely to reflect only gross plate motion. The others, including two of the present laser station sites (Arequipa and Athens), fail to qualify unless extra monitoring schemes can be included, such as precise geodetic surveying of ground deformation.

Mao, N. H.↗
NASA NTRS1974

The 1973 Ethiopian-Rift geodimeter survey

Remeasurement of the Adama, Lake Langana, and Arba Minch (Lake Margherita) geodimeter networks in 1973 has enabled Mohr's interpretation concerning possible surface ground deformation in the Ethiopian rift to be considerably developed. Extension appears to have occurred across the Mojjo-Adama horst at a rate of about 1 cm yr/1. The opposing rims of the Adama graben have not moved significantly relative to one another (between 1969 and 1973), but stations on the sliced graben floor show possible movement with a large rift-trend component. In the Wolenchiti quadrilateral, significant movement of station RABBIT is confirmed, but the radical change of vector (that of 1970-1971 to that of 1971-1973) casts doubt on a tectonic cause and seems to indicate that stations on steep hillslopes are liable to be unstable. South of the quadrilateral and east of the Adama graben, alternating rift-trend zones of extension and shortening appear to coexist. In the Lake Langana network, significant movements of the order of 0.5 cm yr/1 are directed perpendicular to the rift floor faulting.

Mohr, P. A.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Structural geology of the African rift system: Summary of new data from ERTS-1 imagery

ERTS imagery reveals for the first time the structural pattern of the African rift system as a whole. The strong influence of Precambrian structures on this pattern is clearly evident, especially along zones of cataclastic deformation, but the rift pattern is seen to be ultimately independent in origin and nature from Precambrian tectonism. Continuity of rift structures from one swell to another is noted. The widening of the Gregory rift as its northern end reflects an underlying Precambrian structural divergence, and is not a consequence of reaching the swell margin. Although the Western Rift is now proven to terminate at the Aswa Mylonite Zone, in southern Sudan, lineaments extend northeastwards from Lake Albert to the Eastern Rift at Lake Stefanie. The importance of en-echelon structures in the African rifts is seen to have been exaggerated.

Mohr, P. A.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Mapping of the major structures of the African rift system

The author has identified the following significant results. The new fault map of the main Ethiopian rift, based on aerial photo compilations, generally agrees well with the maps produced from ERTS-1 imagery. Characteristically, the ERTS-1 imagery shows some of the major faults to be more extensive than realized from ground studies, though due to the angle of sun illumination some east-facing fault scarps are not easily discernible on the imagery. The Corbetti caldera, shows up surprisingly poor on the imagery, and is shown to be an adjunct to an older, larger caldera now occupied by Lakes Awassa and Shallo. The lithological boundaries mapped by De Paola in the rift are difficult to discern on the ERTS-1 imagery. On the Somalian plateau, east of the rift, a denuded caldera has been identified as the source of much of the lavas of the Batu Mountains. Further south, ERTS-1 imagery amplifies the structural and lithological mapping of the Precambrian rocks of the Shakisso-Arero area, and of the Kenya-Ethiopia border region. For the first time with some certainty, it is now possible to say that on the evidence of the ERTS-1 imagery, the Western Rift does not continue northeast beyond the Sudan-Uganda border, and is thus not to be sought in western Ethiopia.

Mohr, P. A.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Mapping of the major structures of the African rift system

The author has identified the following significant results. ERTS-1 imagery of the African rift system has already proved of great value in structural geological studies. One of the interesting megastructures expressed on the imagery occurs some 40 km east of the eastern margin of the main Ethiopian rift, in Arussi province, and extending between latitude 71/2 and 81/4 deg N. The Badda-Encuolo ridge proves to have been a line of major Tertiary volcanism and probably supplied the thick Trap Series flood basalt sequence exposed farther east in the canyons of the Webi Shebeli drainage system. The ridge itself was built up by the waning activity of the Sagatu line of volcanism. Serendipitious has been the discovery on Mt. Badda of several deeply glaciated valleys, many of which show clearly on the ERTS-1 imagery. It seems that Mt. Badda was one of the most important glacial centers in eastern Africa during the Pleistocene. Three major late-Tertiary trachytic centers lie between the Badda-Encuolo ridge and the rift valley. The relationships of these three volcanoes to each other and to the rift faulting is revealed for the first time by the ERTS-1 imagery, as is the form of the cladera of Baltata and the crater of Chilalo.

Mohr, P. A.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Mapping of the major structures of the African rift system

The author has identified the following significant results. Lake Tara lies within a previously recognized asymmetric graben situated on the Ethiopian plateau and about 250 km west of the plateau-Afar margin. ERTS-1 imagery confirms the stronger deformation of the western side of the Tara graben, with intense faulting and some associated monoclinal mapping extending between latitudes 12 deg and 14 deg N, and lying close to meridian 37 deg E. The zone of deformation is gently arcuate in plan, trending NNE in the south NNW in the north. In the north, the Quaternary faulting dies out in the alluvial plains of the Takazze Valley; in the south the faulting appears to die out in coincidence with a large erosional escapement trending S30W from Lake Tara to precisely latitude 11 deg N. This escapement aligns with the massive NE-SW escapement of western Simien, northeast of Lake Tara, and may represent erosional recession from major faulting and tilting much older than that of the superimposed, obliquely trending Tara graben. A 30 km diameter circular feature has been identified from the ERTS-1 imagery of the Tara graben, centered on 13 deg 05 min N, 37 deg 20 min E. ERTS-1 imagery further shows that the Tara graben and its associated young volcanics have no direct connection with the Red Sea or Ethiopian rift valley.

Mohr, P. A.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Mapping of the major structures of the African rift system using ERTS-1

The author has identified the following significant results. The structural margin of western Afar with the Ethiopian plateau is marked by a rather wide zone of crustal deformation. ERTS-1 imagery has now permitted a more precise mapping of the structures of this marginal zone, and in particular of the discontinuous marginal graben. The tectonic style of the graben is different in the north from the south, and in the latter region the graben is discordant with the regional tectonic trend. The structural margin of the southern Afar with the Somalian plateau is formed, in the western sector, by a remarkable series of fault-zone splays. Afar-plateau boundary fault-zones successively curve northeast and then NNE to become Afar floor fault-zones, with a distance of about 25 km separating successive turnoffs. The transition from Ethiopian rift to Gulf of Aden tread faulting along this margin is fascinatingly complex. A simplistic crustal thinning model is not adequate to explain all observed structural features of the Afar margins.

Mohr, P. A.↗
NASA NTRS1972

ERTS-1 imagery of eastern Africa: A first look at the geological structure of selected areas

The author has identified the following significant results. Imagery of the African rift system resolves the major Cainozoic faults, zones of warping, and associated volcanism. It also clearly depicts the crystal grain of the Precambrian rocks where these are exposed. New structural features, or new properties of known features such as greater extent, continuity, and linearity are revealed by ERTS-1 imagery. This applies, for example, to the NE-SW fracture zones in Yemen, the Aswa mylonite zone at the northern end of the Western Rift, the Nandi fault of western Kenya, the linear faults of the Elgeyo escarpment in the Gregory Rift, and the hemibasins of warped Tertiary lavas on the Red Sea margin of Yemen, matching those of Ethiopian plateau-Afar margin. A tentative scheme is proposed, relating the effect on the pattern of Cainozoic faulting of the degree of obliquity to Precambrian structural trend. It is particularly noteworthy that, even where the Precambrian grain determines the rift faulting to be markedly oblique to the overall trend of the rift trough, for example, in central Lake Tanganyika, the width of the trough is not significantly increased. Some ground mapped lithological boundaries are obscure on ERTS-1 imagery.

Mohr, P. A.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Afar and ERTS-1 imagery

The author has identified the following significant results. The excellent ERTS-1 imagery of the Afar region of Ethiopia permits a preliminary revision to the analysis of the structures of this triple-rift junction, and also revisions to the outcrops of some lithological formations. The fault-belts of the Afar floor can now be mapped in fine detail. The Danakil horst is identified to be limited on its western side against Afar by a major fault-line, and it seems unlikely that the horst is the exposed, easterly portion of a west-dipping sialic block underlying all northern Afar. The Salt Plain appears to be a true graben. The Ethiopian plateau-Afar margin consists of a series of right-offset sectors, the offsets being marked by silicic volcanic centers. The nature of these offsets is related to the vexed question of cross-rift faulting. Such faulting is identifiable on the ERTS-1 imagery, both on the Afar floor, and in the monoclinally warped western margin. The significance of this faulting, though subordinate to the tensional faults of the fault-belts, awaits elucidation.

Mohr, P. A.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Mapping of the major structures of the African rift system

The author has identified the following significant results. ERTS-1 imagery of the African rift system resolves the major Cenozoic faults, zones of warping, and the associated volcanism. It also clearly depicts the crustal grain of the Precambrian rocks where these are exposed. New structural features, or new properties of known features such as greater extent, continuity, linearity, etc., are revealed by the ERTS-1 imagery. This applies to the NE-SW fracture zones in Yemen, the Aswa mylonite zone at the northern end of the Western Rift, the Nandi fault of western Kenya, the arcuate faults of the Elgeyo escarpment in the Gregory rift, and hemi-basins of warped Tertiary lavas on the Red Sea margin of Yemen, matching those of the Ethiopian plateau-Afar margin. A tentative scheme is proposed, relating the effect on the pattern of Cenozoic faulting of the degree of obliquity to Precambrian structural trend. Some ground-mapped lithological boundaries are obscure on ERTS-1 imagery. The present approaches to mapping of Precambrian terrain in Africa may require radical revision with the input of satellite imagery.

Mohr, P. A.↗
NASA NTRS1971

Ethiopian Tertiary dike swarms

Mapping of the Ethiopian rift and Afar margins revealed the existence of Tertiary dike swarms. The structural relations of these swarms and the fed lava pile to monoclinal warping of the margins partly reflect a style of continental margin tectonics found in other parts of the world. In Ethiopia, however, conjugate dike trends appear to be unusually strongly developed. Relation of dikes to subsequent margin faulting is ambiguous, and there are instances where the two phenomena are spatially separate and of differing trends. There is no evidence for lateral migration with time of dike injection toward the rift zone. No separate impingement of Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and African rift system stress fields on the Ethiopian region can be demonstrated from the Tertiary dike swarms. Rather, a single, regional paleostress field existed, suggestive of a focus beneath the central Ethiopian plateau. This stress field was dominated by tension: there is no cogent evidence for shearing along the rift margins. A gentle compression along the rift floor is indicated. A peculiar sympathy of dike hade directions at given localities is evident.

Mohr, P. A.↗