Fig. 5. Preserved and eroded cratonic lithosphere beneath Africa and Arabia.

The thick lithosphere present today is shown in grey. The grey areas include all locations with shear-velocity anomaly exceeding +5% in the 80–150 km depth range, which indicates cold, thick cratonic lithosphere (except in eastern Mediterranean where the high velocities show a part of the Hellenic slab and the exceptionally thick, Triassic oceanic lithosphere). Geologically mapped Archean shields²⁰ are shown with blue and white stripes. Kimberlites and lamproites atop thick lithosphere at present are distinguished from those atop thinned lithosphere. The latter (red, pink) are indicators of lithospheric erosion. Locations of two now eroded cratons (white crossed circles) are reconstructed back in time following three different plate-tectonic reconstructions: a⁷³, b⁷², c⁶⁷. Present-day hotspot locations are shown as solid yellow diamonds; the southern, Tanzania end of the elongated EARS anomaly—as empty diamond.