Basin and Range style tectonics in East Africa

Abstract

Geophysical and geological evidence suggest that the asthenospheric structure beneath the presently active east African rifts resembles that of the Basin and Range tectonic province of the western United States. Both regions are underlain by anomalously thin lithosphere riding on hot asthenospheric pillows that extend laterally for as much as 1500 km normal to structural trend. The continental rifts associated with these terranes do not appear to be leading to plate separation, and young oceanic rifts such as the Red Sea probably evolved from narrower, more restricted mantle thermal anomalies. Low-angle normal faults are interpreted to control the physiography and structural style in the east African rifts in a fashion analogous to that proposed for the Basin and Range. The limited horizontal extension that has occurred in east Africa, however, requires that mechanical thinning of the lithosphere must play a subsidiary role to thermal crosion from below. The upward migration of mantle isotherms has converted the base of the lithosphere to material with asthenospheric properties beneath thousands of square kilometers of crust. The presence of a broad zone of thin, warm lithosphere in both these tectonic provinces may help to distribute extensional strains over correspondingly broad regions. This in turn is expected to result in the development of numerous detachment surfaces (and corresponding surficial rifts), none of which ever completely thin the lithosphere or evolve to oceanic-style rifts.