The continental rifting that precedes the breakup of a continent and the formation of a new ocean basin is one of the key processes of plate tectonics. Although often viewed as a two-dimensional process, rifted margins exhibit significant variations along strike. We document along-strike variations developed during the ca. 200–160 Ma continental rifting that formed the margins of the Gulf of Mexico ocean basin. Rayleigh-wave ambient noise tomography reveals a zone of high and low seismic velocity resembling large-scale geologic boudins in the mantle lithosphere of the northwestern Gulf of Mexico margin. These features become progressively less prominent eastward following the transition from a magma-poor to a magma-rich passive margin. We infer that mantle refertilization and thickness of the pre-rift lithosphere control deformation style and the along-strike variations in continental rifting. Our results also suggest that deformation during rifting produces long-lived features that persist long after breakup and, therefore, can be used to study rifted margins globally.
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Research Article|
May 12, 2022
Seismic evidence for lithospheric boudinage and its implications for continental rifting
Luan C. Nguyen;
Luan C. Nguyen
1
Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
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Alan Levander;
Alan Levander
1
Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
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Fenglin Niu;
Fenglin Niu
1
Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
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Julia Morgan;
Julia Morgan
1
Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
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Guoliang Li
Guoliang Li
2
Computational Mathematics Science and Engineering, Michigan State University, 428 South Shaw Lane, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA
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Geology (2022)
Article history
received:
17 Jan 2022
rev-recd:
04 Apr 2022
accepted:
06 Apr 2022
first online:
12 May 2022
Citation
Luan C. Nguyen, Alan Levander, Fenglin Niu, Julia Morgan, Guoliang Li; Seismic evidence for lithospheric boudinage and its implications for continental rifting. Geology 2022; doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/G50046.1
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