Geodynamic processes related to passive continental margins - from lithospheric thinning to rifting and continental breakup - are of large geoscientific interest. In the past different working groups of GFZ and partners conducted experiments in Namibia and have shown that passive continental margins of the South Atlantic were effected by the still active Tristan de Cunha mantle plume and that the continental lithosphere along the current day margins experienced a series of orogenies before. In 1998 GFZ conducted a regional magnetotelluric profile with 33 stites on a profile between the Brandberg and the Erongo intrusive complex. This profile was extended to the south in 1999 and condensed across the Waterberg Fault/Omaruru Lineament.

Focus of the MT experiments is to gain an electrical conductivity image of the central part of the Damara Belt with its tectonic boundaries and structures.

Time Frame

• 1998 - 2002

Principal Investigators

• PD Dr. Oliver Ritter

• Dr. Ute Weckmann

Cooperations

• Dr. Gaby Schneider (Geological Survey of Namibia)
• Dr. Rainer Wackerle (Geological Survey of Namibia)
• Dr. Tim Vietor (GFZ)

Methods & Equipment  

• S.P.A.M. MkIII
• Metronix Induction coils MFS05
• Ag/AgCl Electrodes

Publications/Results

• Ritter, O.; Weckmann, U.; Vietor, T.; Haak, V. (2003): A magnetotelluric study of the Damara Belt in Namibia : 1. Regional scale conductivity anomalies. Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 138, 2, 71-90.| EDOC: 4060 | 10.1016/S0031-9201(03)00078-5 |
  
• Weckmann, U.; Ritter, O.; Haak, V. (2003): A magnetotelluric study of the Damara Belt in Namibia : 2. MT phases over 90° reveal the internal structure of the Waterberg Fault/Omaruru Lineament. Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 138, 2, 91-112.| EDOC: 4046 | 10.1016/S0031-9201(03)00079-7 |
  
• Weckmann, U.; Ritter, O.; Haak, V. (2003): Images of the magnetotelluric apparent resistivity tensor. Geophysical Journal International, 155, 2, 456-468.| EDOC: 4371 | 10.1046/j.1365-246X.2003.02062.x |
• Weckmann, U. (2002): Entwicklung eines Verfahrens zur Abbildung krustaler Leitfähigkeitsstrukturen anhand von Magnetotellurikdaten aus Namibia. Scientific Technical Reports ; 02/08, GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, 133.| EDOC: 3655 | urn:nbn:de:kobv:b103-020080 | ebooks.gfz-potsdam.de/pub... | 

Acknowledgements 

• GFZ for funding of the experiment and personnel
• Geophysical Instrument Pool Potsdam (GIPP-MT) for providing the instruments

Additional Information

• Fieldwork: 06/1998 06/1999