Cross-scale strain analysis in the Afar rift (East Africa) from automatic fault mapping and geodesy

La Rosa, Alessandro; Gayrin, Pauline; Brune, Sascha; Pagli, Carolina; Muluneh, Ameha A.; Tortelli, Gianmaria; Keir, Derek

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/se-16-929-2025

Articles | Volume 16, issue 10

https://doi.org/10.5194/se-16-929-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/se-16-929-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 16, issue 10

Research article

|

07 Oct 2025

Research article |

| 07 Oct 2025

Cross-scale strain analysis in the Afar rift (East Africa) from automatic fault mapping and geodesy

Alessandro La Rosa, Pauline Gayrin, Sascha Brune, Carolina Pagli, Ameha A. Muluneh, Gianmaria Tortelli, and Derek Keir

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/se-16-929-2025-supplement

Data sets

[Dataset] Automatic fault maps of the Afar rift and Python workflows for strain calculation. Open Science Framework repository A. La Rosa et al. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/AV5WD

FABDEM V1-2 Jeffrey Neal and Laurence Hawker https://doi.org/10.5523/bris.s5hqmjcdj8yo2ibzi9b4ew3sn

Model code and software

Fatbox, the fault analysis toolbox (1.1). GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences. P. Gayrin et al. https://github.com/PaulineGayrin/Fatbox

Short summary

We propose a new method to map faults automatically in digital elevation models (DEMs) and measure long-term crustal deformation in rift contexts. By combining our data with rock ages, we reconstruct rift evolution in Afar during the last 4.5 Myr. We show that the rift axis is most active, with rifting propagating north-west over time. Here magma promotes crustal deformation and faulting caused by dike opening. In the southern sector Afar, two fault systems respond to different motions of diverging tectonic plates.