Varying styles of magmatic strain accommodation across the East African Rift

Abstract

Observations of active dike intrusions provide present day snapshots of the magmatic contribution to continental rifting. However, unravelling the contributions of upper crustal dikes over the timescale of continental rift evolution is a significant challenge. To address this issue, we analyzed the morphologies and alignments of >1500 volcanic cones to infer the distribution and trends of upper crustal dikes in various rift basins across the East African Rift (EAR). Cone lineament data reveal along-axis variations in the distribution and geometries of dike intrusions as a result of changing tectonomagmatic conditions. In younger (<10 Ma) basins of the North Tanzanian Divergence, dikes are largely restricted to zones of rift-oblique faulting between major rift segments, referred to here as transfer zones. Cone lineament trends are highly variable, resulting from the interplay between (1) the regional stress field, (2) local magma-induced stress fields, and (3) stress rotations related to mechanical interactions between rift segments. We find similar cone lineament trends in transfer zones in the western branch of the EAR, such as the Virunga Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The distributions and orientations of upper crustal dikes in the eastern branch of the EAR vary during continental rift evolution. In early-stage rifts (<10 Ma), upper crustal dikes play a limited role in accommodating extension, as they are confined to areas in and around transfer zones. In evolved rift basins (>10 Ma) in Ethiopia and the Kenya Rift, rift-parallel dikes accommodate upper crustal extension along the full length of the basin.