Mapping curie point depth of the west African Craton from satellite magnetic data and its implication for diamond exploration

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to map the Curie depth of the West African Craton (WAC) using satellite magnetic data with the aim to provide first order evaluation, within this vast territory, for the spatial association between Curie-depth surface and known kimberlite locations. Taking into account Clifford's rule, the first and foremost exploration guideline for diamond exploration is the existence of a sufficiently thick lithosphere that expected to have a low surface heat flow. The Curie depth is closely related to the surface heat-flow conditions and lithosphere thickness. In actual fact, the only few regions that have sufficient density of surface heat flow measurements corroborate the association of these conditions with the diamond resources. To better explore in an efficient way the spatial relationship between the Curie depth and known diamondiferous primary sources within the WAC, we used GIS-based weights of evidence method to provide a quantitative analysis