The Baikal Rift: Bounds on its deep thermal structure from an oceanic perspective

摘要

Active deformation at and near the surface of continents represents a manifestation of processes operating at depth and provides constraints on the underlying thermal, mechanical, and dynamic structure of the continental lithosphere. The three major studies undertaken with NASA support of this research grant focus on characterizing various aspects of continental thermal structure in the Baikal Rift zone (BRZ), with some comparisons to other rift and continental swell features, such as the East African Rift and the Rio Grande Rift. For each study, our approach involved incorporating both geological and geophysical data to understand the first-order problem of how the crust and mantle lithosphere respond thermally and mechanically to deformation.