Articles | Volume 15, issue 7
https://doi.org/10.5194/se-15-747-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/se-15-747-2024
Research article
 | 
05 Jul 2024
Research article |  | 05 Jul 2024

Propagating rifts: the roles of crustal damage and ascending mantle fluids

Folarin Kolawole and Rasheed Ajala

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Cited articles

Aanyu, K. and Koehn, D.: Influence of pre-existing fabrics on fault kinematics and rift geometry of interacting segments: analogue models based on the Albertine Rift (Uganda), Western Branch-East African Rift System, J. Afr. Earth Sci., 59, 168–184, 2011. 
Acocella, V., Faccenna, C., Funiciello, R., and Rossetti, F.: Sand-box modelling of basement-controlled transfer zones in extensional domains, Terra Nova, 11, 149–156, 1999. 
Ajala, R. and Kolawole, F.: Propagating rifts: the roles of crustal damage and ascending mantle fluids, Zenodo [data set], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8302196, 2023. 
Ajala, R. and Persaud, P.: Effect of Merging Multiscale Models on Seismic Wavefield Predictions Near the Southern San Andreas Fault, J. Geophys. Res.-Solid, 126, 1–23, 2021. 
Ajala, R., Kolawole, F., and Menke, W.: Blind magmatism abets nonvolcanic continental rifting, Commun. Earth Environ., 5, 80, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01244-7, 2024. 
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We investigate the upper-crustal structure of the Rukwa–Tanganyika rift zone in East Africa, where the Tanganyika rift interacts with the Rukwa and Mweru-Wantipa rifts, coinciding with abundant seismicity at the rift tips. Seismic velocity structure and patterns of seismicity clustering reveal zones around 10 km deep with anomalously high Vp / Vs ratios at the rift tips, indicative of a localized mechanically weakened crust caused by mantle volatiles and damage associated with bending strain.