Strain localization and migration during the pulsed lateral propagation of the Shire Rift Zone, East Africa

We investigate the spatiotemporal patterns of strain accommodation during multiphase rift evolution in the Shire Rift Zone (SRZ), East Africa. The NW-trending SRZ records a transition from magma-rich rifting phases (Permian-Early Jurassic: Rift-Phase 1 (RP1), and Late Jurassic-Cretaceous: Rift-Phase 2 (RP2)) to a magma-poor phase in the Cenozoic (ongoing: Rift-Phase 3 (RP3)). Our observations show that although the rift border faults largely mimic the pre-rift basement metamorphic fabrics, the rift termination zones occur near crustal-scale rift-orthogonal basement shear zones (Sanangoe (SSZ) and the Lurio shear zones) during RP1-RP2 period. In RP3, the RP1-RP2 sub-basins were largely abandoned, and the rift axes migrated northeastward (rift-orthogonally) into the RP1-RP2 basin margin, and northwestward (strike-parallel) ahead of the RP2 rift-tip. The northwestern RP3 rift-axis side-steps across the SSZ with a rotation of border faults across the shear zone, and terminates farther northwest at another regional-scale shear zone. We suggest that over the multiple pulses of tectonic extension and strain migration in the SRZ, pre-rift basement fabrics acted as: 1) favorably-oriented zones of mechanical strength contrast that localized the large rift faults, and 2) mechanical ‘barriers’ that refracted and possibly, temporarily halted the lateral propagation of the rift zone. Further, the cooled RP1-RP2 mafic dikes localized later-phase deformation in the form of border fault hard-linking transverse faults that exploited strength contrasts within the dike clusters and served as mechanically-strong zones that arrested some of the RP3 fault-tips. Overall, we argue that during pulsed rift propagation, inherited crustal strength anisotropies may serve as both strain-localizing, refracting, and ‘strain barrier’ tectonic structures.