Extension parallel to the rift zone during segmented fault growth: application to the evolution of the NE Atlantic

Bubeck, Alodie, Walker, Richard J., Imber, Jonathan, Holdsworth, Robert E., MacLeod, Christopher ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0460-1626 and Holwell, David A. 2017. Extension parallel to the rift zone during segmented fault growth: application to the evolution of the NE Atlantic. Solid Eart 8 , pp. 1161-1180. 10.5194/se-8-1161-2017

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Abstract

The mechanical interaction of propagating normal faults is known to influence the linkage geometry of first-order faults, and the development of second-order faults and fractures, which transfer displacement within relay zones. Here we use natural examples of growth faults from two active volcanic rift zones (Koa`e, island of Hawai`i, and Krafla, northern Iceland) to illustrate the importance of horizontal-plane extension (heave) gradients, and associated vertical axis rotations, in evolving continental rift systems. Second-order extension and extensional-shear faults within the relay zones variably resolve components of regional extension, and components of extension and/or shortening parallel to the rift zone, to accommodate the inherently three-dimensional (3-D) strains associated with relay zone development and rotation. Such a configuration involves volume increase, which is accommodated at the surface by open fractures; in the subsurface this may be accommodated by veins or dikes oriented obliquely and normal to the rift axis. To consider the scalability of the effects of relay zone rotations, we compare the geometry and kinematics of fault and fracture sets in the Koa`e and Krafla rift zones with data from exhumed contemporaneous fault and dike systems developed within a > 5×104 km2 relay system that developed during formation of the NE Atlantic margins. Based on the findings presented here we propose a new conceptual model for the evolution of segmented continental rift basins on the NE Atlantic margins.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Earth and Environmental Sciences
Publisher:	European Geosciences Union
ISSN:	1869-9510
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	21 November 2017
Date of Acceptance:	17 October 2017
Last Modified:	02 May 2023 17:40
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/106776

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