Africa lithospheric thickness and thermal structure model 2026

We present a new continent-scale model of the lithospheric thickness and upper-mantle temperature across Africa. At each 1°×1° grid knot, we obtain phase velocities of Rayleigh and Love waves from azimuthally and radially anisotropic shear-wave tomography and use thermodynamic inversion to jointly invert the phase-velocity and topography data for temperature. Temperature-dependent anelasticity is taken from laboratory-based relationships, and lithospheric mantle compositions from published data. The resulting self-consistent physical models at each grid knot comprise the lithospheric and crustal thicknesses and profiles of temperature, seismic velocities, density and radial anisotropy. Analysis indicates 5–12% uncertainties in lithosphere thickness.