Flexural modeling of the midcontinent rift

Abstract

A basement profile obtained from seismic reflection data has been used to constrain a two‐dimensional flexural model of basin formation for the Midcontinent Rift at a latitude of 45° 25′N. Model parameters included the thickness of the elastic plate, the basin width, and the maximum basin thickness. Modeling suggests that flexure produced a deep narrow basin along the rift axis and that the crust was thinned at the time of basin formation to an elastic thickness of 9.6 km for a plate ruptured by rifting, or 5.7 km for an unbroken plate, with corresponding maximum basin thicknesses of 14 km and 16 km respectively. The plate thickness depends most strongly on the basin width and is well constrained by the seismic data, although erosion may have narrowed the basin. The maximum basin thickness is poorly constrained because of the lack of seismic data for depths greater than about 10 km and because the strata at the center of the rift have been disturbed by a postrift compressional event which produced the St. Croix horst. Despite uncertainty about the basin thickness, the load required to flex the crust to produce the Midcontinent Rift basin is too large to be attributed to the weight of the central flood basalts unless the basin subsided into a fluid less dense than the solidified basalts. On the basis of seismic refraction data and by analogy with other rifts, we hypothesize that a magmatic “rift pillow” intruded in the lower crust. The basaltic pillow subsequently solidified to produce a large, high‐velocity region in the lower crust, centered under the rift axis, as determined from deep seismic refraction. This crystallization and cooling may be responsible for the “sag” phase of rift evolution, as evidenced by laterally widespread occurrence of post volcanic sediments.