Modes of extensional faulting controlled by surface processes

Abstract

We investigate the feedbacks between surface processes and tectonics in an extensional setting by coupling a 2-D geodynamical model with a landscape evolution law. Focusing on the evolution of a single normal fault, we show that surface processes significantly enhance the amount of horizontal extension a fault can accommodate before being abandoned in favor of a new fault. In simulations with very slow erosion rates, a 15 km thick brittle layer extends via a succession of crosscutting short-lived faults (heave < 5 km). By contrast, when erosion rates are comparable to the regional extension velocity, deformation is accommodated on long-lived faults (heave >10 km). Using simple scaling arguments, we quantify the effect of surface mass removal on the force balance acting on a growing normal fault. This leads us to propose that the major range-bounding normal faults observed in many continental rifts owe their large offsets to erosional and depositional processes. Key Points Numerical modeling of normal fault evolution coupled with surface processesSurface processes sustain normal fault growth by relieving gravitational forcingSurface processes enable a wide range of fault life spans in thick faulted layer