Magmatic lithospheric heating and weakening during continental rifting: A simple scaling law, a 2‐D thermomechanical rifting model and the East African Rift System

Continental rifting is accompanied by lithospheric thinning and decompressional melting. After extraction, melt is intruded at shallower depth thereby heating and weakening the lithosphere. In a feedback mechanism this weakening may assist rifting and melt production. A one‐dimensional kinematic lithospheric thinning model is developed including decompressional melting and intrusional magma deposition. The intrusional heating effect is determined as a function of thinning rate and amount, melting parameters, potential temperature, and the depth range of emplacement. The temperature increases approximately proportionally to the square root of the thinning rate and to the square of the supersolidus potential temperature. Simple scaling laws are derived allowing predicting these effects and the surface heat flux for arbitrary scenarios. Two‐dimensional thermomechanical extension models are carried out for a multicomponent (crust‐mantle) two‐phase (melt‐matrix) system with a rheology based on laboratory data including magmatic weakening. In good agreement with the 1‐D kinematic models it is found that the lithosphere may heat up by several 100 K. This heating enhances viscous weakening by one order of magnitude or more. In a feedback mechanism rifting is dynamically enforced, leading to a significant increase of rift induced melt generation. Including the effect of lateral focusing of magma toward the rift axis the laws are applied to different segments of the East African Rift System. The amount of intrusional heating increases with maturity of the rift from O(10 K) to up to 200 K or 400 K at the Afar Rift depending on the depth range of the magmatic emplacement.