Whole-lithosphere shear during oblique rifting

Rifting, lithosphere breakup and volcanism: Comparison of magma-poor and volcanic rifted margins

13 Theoretical Analysis of Shear Localization in the Lithosphere

Deformation in the Earth is rarely homogeneous and often occurs in narrow regions of concentrated strain referred to as zones of shear localization. Mylonites found in the continental crust are the manifestation of shear localization (White et al. 1980) and, at the largest scale, shear localization is proposed to be crucial for the generation of tectonic plates from a convecting mantle (Bercovi...

Lithospheric thinning beneath rifted regions of Southern California.

The stretching and break-up of tectonic plates by rifting control the evolution of continents and oceans, but the processes by which lithosphere deforms and accommodates strain during rifting remain enigmatic. Using scattering of teleseismic shear waves beneath rifted zones and adjacent areas in Southern California, we resolve the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary and lithospheric thickness va...

Conductivity structure of the lithosphereasthenosphere boundary beneath the eastern North American margin

Tectonic plate motion and mantle dynamics processes are heavily influenced by the characteristics of the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (LAB), yet this boundary remains enigmatic regarding its properties and geometry. The processes involved in rifting at passive margins result in substantial alteration of the lithosphere through the transition from continental to oceanic lithologies. Here w...

Control of rheological stratification on rifting geometry: a symmetric model resolving the upper plate paradox

Numerical experiments reproduce the fundamental architecture of magma-poor rifted margins such as the Iberian or Alpine margins if the lithosphere has a weak mid-crustal channel on top of strong lower crust and a horizontal thermal weakness in the rift center. During model extension, the upper crust undergoes distributed collapse into the rift center where the thermally weakened portion of the ...