Abstract
Continental rifts have been characterized by en echelon valleys which average 50 km in width, are bounded by extensional normal faults and act as crustal lineaments of great length transecting broad uplifted arches. Gravity, heat flow and volcanism, relatively well known for the Rio Grande Rift, provide models of the lithosphere which include variations in thickness, temperature, stress and viscosity. Inclusion of the third dimension in the process of continental rifting implies a thinning of the lithosphere through intrusion of a high-temperature, less-dense, low- viscosity mantle diapir. This mass moves buoyantly upward, creating uplift, shear-stress concentrations in the crust beneath the rift, normal faulting and attendant surface volcanism.
Work supported by U.S Energy & Research Development Administration under contract W-7405-ENG-36. I thank J. Callender and T. Shankland for review and N. Carter for a preprint of [15].
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© 1978 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland
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Bridwell, R.J. (1978). The Rio Grande Rift and a Diapiric Mechanism for Continental Rifting. In: Ramberg, I.B., Neumann, ER. (eds) Tectonics and Geophysics of Continental Rifts. NATO Advanced Study Institutes Series, vol 37. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9806-3_8
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