Magma-maintained rift segmentation at continental rupture in the 2005 Afar dyking episode

Tim J. Wright (), Cindy Ebinger, Juliet Biggs, Atalay Ayele, Gezahegn Yirgu, Derek Keir and Anna Stork
Additional contact information
Tim J. Wright: University of Oxford
Cindy Ebinger: Royal Holloway, University of London
Juliet Biggs: University of Oxford
Atalay Ayele: The Geophysical Observatory
Gezahegn Yirgu: Addis Ababa University
Derek Keir: Royal Holloway, University of London
Anna Stork: University of Oxford

Nature, 2006, vol. 442, issue 7100, 291-294

Abstract: A continent divided Occurring mainly over a week in September 2005, a 60-km-long section of the Afar depression in Ethiopia was torn apart by the injection of over 2 cubic kilometres of molten rock into the plate: an 8-metre-wide gap appeared at the surface. Satellite radar imagery reveals that a series of fissures opened, the rift shoulders rose, and the ground surface dropped above the molten rock. A similarly large rift took place in Krafla in Iceland 25 years ago, but in a series of events over a ten year period. The Afar incident suggests that magma intrusion into a dyke, rather than faulting of the crust, may be responsible for the segmentation of continental rifts.

Date: 2006
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DOI: 10.1038/nature04978

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