Michael Kendall, J;
Lithgow-Bertelloni, C;
(2016)
Why is Africa rifting?
In:
Geological Society Special Publication.
(pp. 11-30).
Geological Society: London, UK.
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Abstract
Continental rifting has a fundamental role in the tectonic behaviour of the Earth, shaping the surface we live on. Although there is not yet a consensus about the dominant mechanism for rifting, there is a general agreement that the stresses required to rift the continental lithosphere are not readily available. Here we use a global finite element model of the lithosphere to calculate the stresses acting on Africa. We consider the stresses induced by mantle flow, crustal structure and topography in two types of models: one in which flow is exclusively driven by the subducting slabs and one in which it is derived from a shear wave tomographic model. The latter predicts much larger stresses and a more realistic dynamic topography. It is therefore clear that the mantle structure beneath Africa plays a key part in providing the radial and horizontal tractions, dynamic topography and gravitational potential energy necessary for rifting. Nevertheless, the total available stress (c. 100 MPa) is much less than that needed to break thick, cold continental lithosphere. Instead, we appeal to a model of magma-assisted rifting along pre-existing weaknesses, where the strain is localized in a narrow axial region and the strength of the plate is reduced significantly. Mounting geological and geophysical observations support such a model.
Type: | Book chapter |
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Title: | Why is Africa rifting? |
Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
DOI: | 10.1144/SP420.17 |
Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1144/SP420.17 |
Language: | English |
Additional information: | © 2016 The Author(s). Published by The Geological Society of London. Gold Open Access: This article is published under the terms of the CC-BY 3.0 license. |
UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Earth Sciences |
URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10138277 |
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