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Abstract The Turkana Depression, located between the Ethiopian and East African plateaus, displays an anomalous rift architecture. It is missing the narrow, magma‐rich morphology observed in the Main Ethiopian Rift that cuts through the Ethiopian Plateau. Instead, diffuse faulting and isolated volcanic centers are widespread over several hundred kilometers. Turkana has also experienced less magmatism over the last 30 Myr than adjacent plateaus, despite having a thin crust and residing above a mantle that is inferred to be hot and partially molten. We hypothesize that lithospheric weakening has been the key control on magma transport across the lithosphere in the Turkana Depression and subsequent rift development. Using poro‐viscoelastic–viscoplastic models of melt transport, we show that magma extraction across a thin, weakened lithosphere is slower than across a thick, elastic lithosphere. Our results suggest that pre‐rift lithospheric strength can explain the magma‐poor character of Turkana for most of its tectonic history.
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Accommodation of East African Rifting Across the Turkana Depression
Abstract Geodetic observations in the Turkana Depression of southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya constrain the kinematic relay of extension from a single rift in Ethiopia to parallel rifts in Kenya and Uganda. Global Position System stations in the region record approximately 4.7 mm/year of total eastward extension, consistent with the ITRF14 Euler pole for Nubia‐Somalia angular velocity. Extension is partitioned into high strain rates on localized structures and lower strain rates in areas of elevated topography, as across the Ethiopian Plateau. Where high topography is absent, extension is relayed between the Main Ethiopian Rift and the Eastern Rift across the Turkana Depression exclusively through localized extension on and immediately east of Lake Turkana (up to 0.2 microstrain/year across Lake Turkana). The observed scaling and location of active extension in the Turkana Depression are inconsistent with mechanical models predicting distributed stretching due to either inherited lithospheric weakness or reactivated structures oblique to the present‐day extension direction.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1824199
- PAR ID:
- 10456232
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth
- Volume:
- 125
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 2169-9313
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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