Lithospheric Sill Intrusions and Present-Day Ground Deformation at Rhenish Massif, Central Europe

The Rhenish Massif in Central Europe, which includes the Eifel Volcanic Fields, has shown ongoing ground deformation and signs of possible magmatic activity. A buoyant plume with distributed partial melts exerting uplift forces at the bottom of the lithosphere has been proposed to explain the current deformation; the hypothesis that melt is accumulating in the crust or lithospheric mantle has not been explored yet. Here, we test deformation models in an elastic half space considering sources of varying aspect ratio, size and depth. We explore the effects of data coverage, noise and uncertainty on the inferred source parameters. We find that melt accumulation within the lithosphere cannot be ruled out if this emplacement occurs in sub-horizontal structures expanding at the rate of 0.045 km^3/yr. We discuss our results in the context of plume and underplating models worldwide and elaborate on what further observations may be needed to better constrain the structure of the Eifel magmatic system.