Thermal and mechanical development of the East African Rift System
Name
19834012-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
27.06 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
3780ee9c45ffbf7d5775ff51a5ec4807
Author(s)
Ebinger, Cynthia Joan
Advisor(s)
Leigh H. Royden.
Date Issued
1988
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
The deep basins, uplifted flanks, and volcanoes of the Western and Kenya rift systems have developed along the western and eastern margins of the 1300 km-wide East African plateau. Structural patterns deduced from field, Landsat, and geophysical studies in the Western rift reveal a series of asymmetric basins bounded by approximately 100 kmlong segments of the border fault system. These basins are linked by oblique-slip and strike-slip faults cross-cutting the rift valley. Faults bounding the Kenya and Western rift valleys delineate two north-south-trending, 40-75 km wide zones of crustal extension, and little or no crustal thinning has occurred beneath the uplifted flanks or the central plateau. In the Western rift, volcanism in Late Miocene time began prior to or concurrent with basinal subsidence, followed by rift flank uplift. Individual extensional basins developed diachronously, and basinal propagation may give rise to the along-axis segmentation of the rift valley. The coherence between gravity and topography data indicates that the mechanical lithosphere beneath the two rift valleys has been weakened relative to the central plateau and adjacent cratonic regions. Gravity and topography data at wavelengths corresponding to the overcompensated East African plateau can be explained by density variations within the upper mantle that are dynamically maintained.
Description
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Joint Program in Oceanography (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), June 1988.
"May 1988."
Includes bibliographical references (p. 163-169).
Subjects
Joint Program in Oceanography.
Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
MIT Department
Joint Program in Oceanography
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Ocean Engineering
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