Capturing the strain migration process through rift evolution in the Turkana Depression, East Africa
Abstract
Faults and 45 Ma to Recent volcanic centers in the Turkana Depression of the East African Rift System (EARS) straddle the Ethiopian and Kenyan borders near the divergence of the Eastern and Western rift sectors. This ~ 300 km-wide region encompasses the earliest faulting and magmatism in the East African rift, and was created by spatial migration of rifting, confounding classic models of progressive strain localization. The Turkana Depression has yet to be investigated in detail with modern geophysical methods. The Turkana Rift Arrays to Investigate Lithospheric Structure (TRAILS) seismic and geodetic experiment was designed to fill this critical gap in the kinematics of strain transfer from the Main Ethiopian Rift on the Ethiopian plateau, to both the Eastern and Western rifts that formed on the East African plateau. Thirty-two broadband seismometers were deployed in Kenya and Ethiopia in January 2019 with ~ 50 km spacing for crustal imaging. 9 continuous GPS stations were installed to complement 2 existing stations. Initial analyses of seismic data reveal frequent tectonic earthquakes detected on all or parts of the array, and volcano-tectonic earthquakes in the Quaternary volcanic province east of Lake Turkana. We present initial seismicity, receiver function, and GPS findings from the project based on data from the first 6 months of monitoring.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFM.T43E0492K
- Keywords:
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- 8105 Continental margins: divergent;
- TECTONOPHYSICS;
- 8107 Continental neotectonics;
- TECTONOPHYSICS;
- 8109 Continental tectonics: extensional;
- TECTONOPHYSICS;
- 8169 Sedimentary basin processes;
- TECTONOPHYSICS