GD
Geodynamics

continental rifting

What can we learn from geodynamic failure?

and October 28, 2020
Artwork reading
AllMyFault by L. Perez Diaz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

In this week’s post, Mohamed Gouiza discusses the challenges of living under constant stress, paralysed by the possibility of failure and self-perceived inevitability of impending breakup. Continental rifting, of course! Oh… did you think I was talking about life as a researcher? Under tensile stress, the lithosphere stretches, the asthenosphere rises, the crust fails, and rifts form. During this ...[Read More]

What controls Victoria microplate rotation in the East African Rift?

July 15, 2020
Lake Magadi, Kenya.
Clouds reflecting in lake Magadi, Kenya, located in the Eastern Branch of the East African Rift System. The high rising flanks of the Rift’s border faults can be seen in the background. (Credit: Corinna Kalich, University of Potsdam)

This week in News & Views, Anne Glerum, postdoc at GFZ Potsdam, discusses how her numerical models support a lithosphere-driven mechanism for the rotation of large continental microplates, like Victoria in the East African Rift System. The East African Rift System (EARS) is a newly forming divergent boundary between the Nubian and Somalian plates (Fig. 1). The plate boundary system includes se ...[Read More]