Introduction - Processes of continental rifting

It is thought likely that thermal thinning and/or diapirism can cause the extensional stress required for rifting. The rifting, however, will not occur unless the regional tectonic regime permits the sides of the rift to diverge. Whereas passive plate extension could cause rifting in isolation, the extension and rifting are likely to be localized where the lithosphere is weakest over an existing thermal anomaly. In those cases where asthenospheric diapirism occurs, which is essentially a response to thinning of the lithosphere by thermal thinning or plate extension, the effects of diapirism may completely mask the initiating mechanism. It is believed that anomalous heat transfer into the lithosphere, diapirism, and magmatism must all figure in rifting, along with a deviatoric stress field that will permit extension in a developing rift. Even though the models are useful in permitting idealized processes to be quantified and tested, better knowledge of lithosphere properties is considered necessary, in particular knowledge of mantle viscosity and its temperature dependence.