Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors 111 1999.

253266

Seismicity of oceanic and continental riftsa geodynamic approach

P.O. Sobolev
a

a, )

, D.V. Rundquist

International Institute of Earthquake Prediction Theory and Mathematical Geophysics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Warshaskoye sh. 79, kor. 2, Moscow 113556, Russian Federation b Vernadsky State Geological Museum, Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Mokhoaya 11, Moscow 103009, Russian Federation

Abstract Two major kinds of divergent structuresoceanic and intracontinental riftswere compared in principal seismic and tectonic characteristics. First, the role of main components of the mid-oceanic ridges MOR. was estimated for the whole Earth. We considered two levels of the MOR segmentation. The first-order structures are the segments of MOR between triple junctions and the second-order structures are a transform faults and rift parts of MOR. The seismic catalogues NEIC and CMT were used to assess the seismic moment release. The seismic moment release was calculated another way using the global plate tectonic model NUVEL-1 and Brunes formulae. Comparison of these two values shows that the seismic coupling coefficient, a , varies from 1 to 10% for most of MOR and is always higher for transform faults. Most of the deformation, therefore, is aseismic slip. Most seismicity of MOR is confined to transform faults. The energy contribution of transform faults is one to two orders magnitude higher than that of the rift, and increases with the spreading rate. There is a strong correlation between the seismic moment release of strikeslip faults and their total lengths. The correlation shows that the seismic moment release depends on the total transform area and confirms the simple thermal model of transform seismicity that was given by Burr and Solomon. The seismic moment release and the spreading rate have opposite patterns. For the rifts, there is an inverse correlation between the seismic moment of normal faults and spreading velocity, while it seems for transforms that these parameters are independent. Finally, these results show that the seismicity of transforms and rifts depends first of all on the thermal structure of oceanic lithosphere. In the case of continental rifts, one can distinguish in the degree of seismic activity depending on the stage of rifting. Hence, analysis of the continental seismicity requires the consideration of factors of a geological evolution that play practically no role in the case of oceanic lithosphere. The comparison of geological and seismic data for the East African region has allowed us to outline the regular changes of the seismic regime during development of the rift zone from the stage of incipient rift to mature oceanic rift. In the evolutionary series wintracontinental incipient riftx wintracontinental mature riftx wintercontinental riftx woceanic slow-spreading riftx woceanic fast-spreading riftx, there is a gradual decrease of the role of rifts sensu stricto, as tension structures. and increase of the role of strikeslip faults. Epicenters concentrate along major faults as well. The level of seismic energy becomes lower, although the rate of deformation increases. q 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Seismicity; Geodynamic approach; Rifts

Corresponding author. Fax: q7-095-310-70-32; E-mail: sobolev@mitp.ru

0031-9201r99r$ - see front matter q 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 0 3 1 - 9 2 0 1 9 8 . 0 0 1 6 5 - 4

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P.O. Sobole, D.V. Rundquist r Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors 111 (1999) 253266

1. Introduction Mid-oceanic ridges MOR. are the most extensive global structures. They are edges where new oceanic crust is formed and plates diverge in opposite directions. In many respects, it is an ideal object to study the relations between seismicity and tectonics due to a relatively simple geodynamic environment. Another kind of divergent boundary is the intracontinental rift, the best known of which is the African Arabian rift system. In the present article we have obtained seismic patterns for the whole world oceanic rift system and compared them with corresponding regularities of continental rifts. The main objectives are as follows: 1. to estimate the ratio between seismic and aseismic components of deformation for rift and transform parts of MOR; 2. to define the role of these two structural types in the seismicity of MOR; 3. to seek relationships between seismic moment and major structural characteristics of MOR; and 4. to compare seismicity of oceanic and intracontinental rifts.

2. The seismicity of MOR The discovery of the global system of rifts, including MOR is one of the most significant geological discoveries of our century; investigations of MOR continue to yield important data. On the one hand, some of the most fundamental problems of plate tectonics, petrology, and ore formation are connected with the study of these structures. On the other hand, rifts are active seismic belts. The largest as well as moderate oceanic earthquakes are located along MOR. The ridges are interconnected and form major global belts. Their cumulative length is more than 60,000 km. Slow- such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. and fast-spreading e.g., the East Pacific Rise. ridges are differentiated on the basis of spreading rate values. MOR have two main structural types which alternate throughout the extent of the ridge. One type includes the rift zones. The other includes the transform faults. As was shown by Sykes 1967., earthquakes with normal fault mechanisms occur mainly

in the rift zone, while epicenters of earthquakes with strikeslip mechanisms are located inside active parts of transforms faults. Francis 1968. has established difference in some seismic regime parameters between rift and transform parts of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, namely, the largest earthquakes are located along transforms and the rift events have larger values of b rate of slope of linear magnitude frequency relation.. On the other hand, some relationships between seismic and tectonic characteristics were inferred from a study of the largest transform faults Burr and Solomon, 1978; Solomon and Burr, 1979.. We analyzed data on the whole global system of MOR using digitized data of Stoddard 1992., who summarized many results. In spite of some inaccuracies, they are suitable for a global analysis. According to this model, there are 367 transform faults and the same number of rift zones, each of them belonging to one of the fifteen interplate boundaries Fig. 1.. First, the NEIC catalogue was used to evaluate the seismic moment release Global Hypocenters Database, 1995.. All earthquakes with m b ) 4 from 1964 to 1995 that lie inside an 80-km wide zone along MOR have been considered. As a whole, there are 4732 events for transforms and 4385 events for rifts. For the same area around MOR, all earthquakes from the CMT catalogue were taken 1002 and 644 events, respectively.. From these data the parameters of a linear regression of log M0 on m b were calculated for m b ) 5, giving the following empirical equations: log M0 s 10.18 q 1.39 m b transforms. , log M0 s 11.16 q 1.17 m b rifts . . The theoretical value of the coefficient in a similar equation for Ms is equal to 1.5, corresponding approximately to 2.4 in the case of m b Kanamori and Anderson, 1975.. However, as was shown by Romanelli and Panza 1996., the coefficient depends on tectonic environments and depths of hypocenters. Also, the smaller value of the coefficient in the case of oceanic rifts confirms the smaller size of their earthquake sources relative to the transforms sources. After converting m b to M0 , the total seismic moment, M0 , was calculated both for transforms

P.O. Sobole, D.V. Rundquist r Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors 111 (1999) 253266

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Fig. 1. Major tectonic plates, MOR and the AfricanArabian rift system.

and rifts for each pair of plates. The same value can be evaluated using the well-known formula of Brune 1968. for a simple plane fault: 1

A s

mt

M0

1.

where m is the shear modulus 5 = 10 10 Nrm2 ., t is the time interval, A is the fault area, and is the velocity of displacement. One can compute the relative velocity for each part of a ridge using the global plate tectonic model NUVEL-1 DeMets and Gordon, 1990.. The fault area was calculated by different ways for transforms and rifts, because the respective shapes differ. For the former case, it was supposed that the area of a transform susceptible to seismic failure is confined above the 4008C isotherm Stoddard, 1992.. The oceanic isotherms have the form of a parabola and depend on the spreading rate Solomon and Burr, 1979.. So, the transform area above a given isotherm is proportional to a function

of transform length and velocity. We assume that the area of a rift fault is rectangular and its depth was evaluated as explained by Solomon et al. 1988.. The ratio of the catalogue-based seismic moment release to the corresponding value calculated on the bases of theoretical formula is called a seismic coupling coefficient, a Pacheco et al., 1993.. Commonly, it shows that part of the strain energy is released as earthquakes and part as aseismic deformations. The results of calculations are given in Table 1. The seismic coupling is a clear difference for rifts and transforms. The coefficient is higher for transforms and decrease with the growth of the spreading rate Fig. 2.. Only in the fastest ridges of the East Pacific an a values almost the same for both types. Generally, a values vary between 1 and 10%. Thus, aseismic deformation is clearly dominant for the case of rift parts of MOR; the ratio of seismic and aseismic components of transform faults depends on the spreading rate. In both cases, these results suppose a controlling role of lithospheric thermal structure into MOR seismicity.

256 P.O. Sobole, D.V. Rundquist r Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors 111 (1999) 253266

Table 1 Some seismological and structural characteristics of MOR Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Sector of MOR afrant afrara afraus afrind afrnam afrsam antaus antpac antsam cocnaz cocpac nameur nampac nazant pacnaz N 742 18 366 471 1199 1702 765 299 164 15 335 1682 404 481 474 Ltr km. 4320 670 1390 1010 1490 5850 3460 3590 1310 830 390 2020 2870 2820 1110 Lri km. 4360 1560 1780 2290 3200 7520 7140 5080 720 2180 1850 5340 730 2210 4430 V cmr year. 1.42 2.19 4.20 3.32 2.42 3.38 6.77 7.27 1.75 5.94 11.00 2.23 4.84 5.93 14.85 M0tr 10 16 N m. 15,160 3810 4850 9300 26,260 12,380 7790 10,490 1140 6630 2940 7500 2130 M0ri 10 16 N m. 7300 120 2750 4040 5910 9610 6030 2000 1740 110 1240 4740 620 1350 2200

a tr %.
17.7 4.7 5.7 9.2 8.7 3.0 2.8 61.5 1.4 4.7 7.9 6.2 2.9

a ri %.
8.5 0.3 3.4 4.7 5.8 3.2 1.5 0.7 10.2 0.1 1.5 3.4 1.7 1.1 3.0

M0tr 10 16 N m. 7540 870 3210 1710 3750 26,560 10,350 4860 1250 6150 1425 375 9680 6860 1960

M0ri 10 16 N m. 1046 226 103 443 947 1055 50 21 127 77 408 114 312

Plates: afr s African; ant s Antarctic; ara s Arabian; aus s Australian; coc s Cocos; eur s Eurasian; nam s North American; naz s Nazca; pac s Pacific; sam s South American. N s number of earthquakes in the NEIC catalogue. Ltr s total length of transform faults. Lri s total length of MOR rift zones. V s average spreading rate. M0tr , M0ri s the seismic moment sum for transform and rift zones of MOR, respectively. a tr , a ri s seismic coupling coefficient for transform and rift zones of MOR, respectively. M0tr , M0ri s accumulated seismic moment for earthquakes with strikeslip, normal and oblique faults mechanisms, respectively.

P.O. Sobole, D.V. Rundquist r Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors 111 (1999) 253266

257

Fig. 2. Seismic coupling coefficient for the plate boundaries vs. average spreading rate.

The next stage of analysis was based on the global Harvard Centroid Moment Tensor Catalogue 1995. containing most events with M W ) 5.0 since 1977 to 1994 M W is seismic moment magnitude.. The important advantage of this catalogue is that earthquakes can be discriminated on the basis of their mechanisms and, therefore, there is an opportunity to evaluate the contribution of each kind of fault into MOR seismicity. Previous estimates were based on the geographical location of the epicenters only, but there were great uncertainties near the intersections of rifts and transforms. It is possible to determine the type of earthquake using the value of rake the angle between slip vector and horizontal line measured on the fault plane., because almost all focal plane solutions have dip angles more than 308. There are four kinds of mechanisms: normal faults y120 F rake F y60., thrusts 60 F rake F 120., strikeslip faults angles that lie within 308 of 180 or y180. and oblique ones. Most earthquakes belong either to normal faults or strikeslip faults, while earthquakes with oblique mechanisms and thrusts are a minority. The distribution of epicenters shows that, usually normal-fault earthquakes are confined to rifts, and strikeslip earthquakes occur near transform

faults. Earthquakes with oblique mechanisms occur much more rarely, and their position with relation to the basic elements of the MOR is rather irregular. Therefore, the earthquakes with strikeslip mechanisms can be used for the estimation of the seismic moment of transforms and, correspondingly, the seismic moment of rifts can be calculated using data for normal faults. The results are given in Table 1. It is clearly seen that the values of seismic moment release on transforms are higher than on rifts. It should be noticed that the energy contribution of transforms increases with the growth of spreading rate, even though their length is smaller. We tried to outline some relationships which connect M0 with some structural factors, namely fault length and spreading rate. The dependence of the seismic moment release on the total length of faults is shown in Fig. 3. A power relationship should be expected between these parameters from theoretical reasoning about proportionality of M0 to fault area and the evaluation of this area on the basis of Eq. 1.. However, the real curve goes lower and is approximated rather by an exponential function. There is no clear-cut dependence of M0 on length for rift zones. Evidently, the leading factor is the spreading rate in this case. A quite reliable logarithmic relation between M0 and V is seen there, except for one

Fig. 3. Total seismic moment release for strikeslip faulting earthquakes vs. the total length of transform faults.

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P.O. Sobole, D.V. Rundquist r Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors 111 (1999) 253266

Fig. 4. Total seismic moment release for the normal faulting earthquakes vs. average spreading rate.

point of the PacificNazca boundary with an extremely high spreading rate Fig. 4.. The following conclusions can be drawn based on our analysis of global patterns for MOR. 1. The decisive role in MOR seismicity belongs to transform faults. The energy contribution of transform faults is one to two orders higher than that of rifts and increases with the increasing spreading rate; 2. Seismic coupling coefficient a varies from 1 to 10% for most of MOR, and it is invariably higher for the transform faults; 3. Relations between the seismic moment release, fault length, and spreading rate are different for transform and rift parts of MOR; this confirms the difference in shape and origin between their earthquake sources. Anyway, in both cases, the major factor of the MOR seismicity is the thermal structure of the lithosphere.

3. The seismicity of the AfricanArabian rift system The AfricanArabian rift system is an example of a continental rift. Notions of the structure and evolution of these rifts have changed considerably as a

result of complex geological and geophysical researches carried out in recent years e.g., Chorowitz et al., 1987; Rosendahl, 1987.. It was found that the degree of evolution of riftogenic structures steadily decreases from north to south, which is explained by the different times of their formation. The African Arabian rift system consists of a series of structural zones crossing the entire African continent. The triple junction of the Red Sea, Aden, and the Ethiopian rifts is located in the north. The so-called Eastern branch, integrating the Ethiopian and Kenyan rifts, continues further to the south. The Western branch, located along the chain of African lakes, is crossed by the Azva transversal zone in the north and the TanganyikaRukvaMalawi fault zone in the south. The Malawi Rift is located further south. The Kerimba fault zone is situated on the southern most part of the continent. All structures have different relief, type and character of faults, and deep structure. This is explained by the different times of origin of Cenozoic rifts and, hence, by the different degrees of their evolution Chorowitz et al., 1987.. The asymmetry of rift structures is revealed in the development of systems of subsidiary dislocations on the western side. The substantial influence of preCenozoic Precambrian and PermianTriassic. rift structures and their confinement to zones between the most ancient granitegneiss cores of Precambrian crust is common to all modern rifts Chorowitz et al., 1987.. Seven sectors were distinguished within the East African rift system boundaries of rifts and faults are from the Map of Fault Tectonics of Africa and Arabia by Yarmoluk, 1984. and a comparative evaluation of the seismicity was carried out Fig. 5.. The characteristics of these sectors are given in Table 2. Despite the uncertainty of the boundaries of these sectors, one can see that they differ rather sharply in all major features of geological structure and reflect the different stages in the evolution of a rift zone. Gradual thinning of the continental crust, accompanied by an increase of heat flow, expansion of the area of grabens, uplift of near-slope parts, and increasing subsidence of the graben floor, occur during the process of rifting. In the later stages, the oceanic lithosphere is eventually formed and a mid-oceanic ridge comes into existence. This process can be observed in the Gulf of Aden. In this general series,

P.O. Sobole, D.V. Rundquist r Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors 111 (1999) 253266

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Fig. 5. Rift valleys, major faults, and epicenters of earthquakes with m b G 4.0 19641995.. Numbers correspond to numbers of sectors in Table 2.

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Table 2 General characteristics of the areas of the AfricanArabian Rift system Number Area Time of the beginning of rifting Eocene Oligocene Neogenequaternary magmatism Active volcanism in the axial zone tholeiitic basalts, also occurrences in the marginal parts Active modern volcanism in the axial graben Tholeiitic basalts, occurrences of alkaline and subalkaline basalts in the marginal parts Broad fields of the volcanic rocks of basalttrahite association, carbonatites Occurrences of the volcanic rocks of basalt trahitephonolite association, carbonatites Single ring basic ultrabasic alkaline intrusions Absent ?. Deep structure Structural characteristics Escarpments, marginal depressions, clearly expressed mid-ocean ridge Escarpments, marginal depressions, the mid-ocean ridge is in the southern part only Broad dome uplifts, wide continuous graben q L S N a b M0 Stage of rifting P.O. Sobole, D.V. Rundquist r Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors 111 (1999) 253266 Oceanic

Aden

Entire oceanic crust, mantle on the depth of 58 km The parts of oceanic crust, forming a chain

more than 150

67

1060

502

9.97

1.48

8.9

Red Sea

Eocene Oligocene

more than 250

57

570

271

6.96

0.98

19

Initial oceanic

East Rift

Late Oligocene

Strongly thinned continental crust Thinned continental crust

more than 100 150

35

230

81

8.73

1.42

3.0

Mature rift

West Rift

Early Miocene

Narrow half-dome uplifts, intermittent system of grabens

6075 34

135

319

8.18

1.19

37

Typical rift

Malawi

MiddleLate Miocene Late Miocene The present time?.

Kerimba

Limpopo

Absent ?.

Normal continental crust Normal continental crust Normal continental crust

System of grabens

5075 4

85

171

8.01

1.24

2.1

Initial rift

Separate grabens

60

77

9.69

1.63

3.2

Initial rift

Faults

5060 ?

224

11.19 1.81

0.63 Pre-rift ?.

N s number of earthquakes. M0 s total seismic moment release 10 18 N m.. S s area of rifts 1000 km2 .. L s total displacement in normal faults km.. q s average heat flow in the axial part mWrm2 .. a, b s coefficients of the equation log N s a y bm b .

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Fig. 6. Histogram of rake value distribution for the earthquakes in the AfricanArabian rift system a. and for all MOR b..

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P.O. Sobole, D.V. Rundquist r Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors 111 (1999) 253266

magmatism changes regularly from basic complexes and carbonatites to alkaline and to tholeiitic basalts. Shallow earthquakes, with m b - 6, dominate in the area. Their epicenters are confined more often to faults with either a northwestern or northeastern strike and are located within the rift valleys or subsidiary faults, which become more numerous to the south. An analysis of focal mechanisms the Harvard catalogue for the 19771994 period was used. shows that normal faults prevail in Africa. Most strikeslip movements are related to faults of the Aden and Red Sea rifts, and they are almost lacking inside the continent. This is explained by the prevalence of tension in the northwest direction approximately perpendicular to the strike of most riftbounding faults Kebebe and Kulhanek, 1991.. Types of mechanisms can be identified by the rake value. The diagram of distribution of this parameter shows a clear prevalence of normal faults Fig. 6., which make up more than half the total number of solutions and includes all large earthquakes. Diffuse seismicity prevails at the earlier stages of rifting, while almost all epicenters of earthquakes are located within rift troughs at the later stages. A

decrease in the b-value in GutenbergRichters relation. is evident: sectors where rifting begins are characterized by the greatest values of b. The smallest values of b and, hence, the greatest concentrations of stress are in the Red Sea and the Western Rift. In contrast, the Eastern Rift is characterized by a great number of smaller earthquakes; as corroborated by data from local seismic studies Tongue et al., 1994.. Earthquakes from the NEIC catalogue m b G 4.0, 19641995. were used to calculate the seismic moment release. The Western Rift has the maximum density of released seismic energy. Most of the energy is released on subsidiary faults of the main rift valleys. Since the area of grabens reflects the degree of rifting, one can try to estimate very roughly the character of seismicity evolution during the geological development of intracontinental rifts Fig. 7.. It is likely that initially, seismicity increases quickly, reaches a maximum at the stage of a typical rift the Western Rift., and then gradually decreases. An increase in the role of earthquakes located within the rift valleys is typical, suggesting the localization of epicenters in precisely these structures.

Fig. 7. The total seismic moment release vs. total area of grabens for the AfricanArabian rift system.

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The most pronounced differences in seismic regimes are typical of the two important zones Western and Eastern branches of the East African rift system. The geological structure zones strongly differ. The crust under the Kenyan and Ethiopian rifts Eastern branch. is much thinner. Based on geophysical data Girdler, 1983., the lithosphere of this zone is characterized by increased plasticity. This is corroborated by the existence of large, active modern volcanism and increased heat flow. In addition, this sector has the maximum total length of rifts Table 2.. All of these facts testify to a relatively high rate of deformation within the Eastern branch and the prevalence of the aseismic component. The situation in the Western branch is different. Here the crust is insignificantly thinned under rift valleys, volcanism is almost absent, and numerous faults deviate laterally from the rifts. It is likely that the lithosphere here is more fragile, and the deformations are accompanied by the release of seismic energy in the form of larger earthquakes. Evidently, the distinction between these two branches is mainly caused by their different positions. The Eastern branch represents the continuation of an oceanic rift inside the continent, whereas the Western branch can serve as an example of an actual intracontinental rift.

4. Discussion: comparison of the seismicity of oceanic and continental rifts Continental and oceanic rifts are different stages of one prolonged tectonic process of rifting. This process begins with incipient rifting inside a continent, and then the crust transforms from continental to oceanic crust. A new oceanic lithosphere is born of the transformation complete but it can stop at any stage. Taking the AfricanArabian rift system as an example, one can see almost complete evolutionary series of this process and it is probable that modern oceanic rifts mid-oceanic ridges, MOR. have gone through all these stages in the geological past. Hence, one of the major that links both kinds of rifts is their common origin. They reflect the evolution of divergent boundaries in time. However, there are some principal distinctions that cause their different geodynamic and so, seismic. patterns.

First of all, oceanic rifts are much more widespread than are continental ones. There are only few regions with active continental rifting, the larger of these being the AfricanArabian, Baikal, RioGrande, and Rhein rift systems. The extent of MOR is many times larger. Although both kinds of rifts are divergent boundaries, in the case of oceans, the spreading rate is higher by at least an order of magnitude. Another principal difference consists in an absolutely different deep structure of continents and oceans. The lithosphere differs in composition, internal structure, and thickness. Also the thermal structure which strongly affects the elasticity properties. of the lithosphere is quite different for typical oceanic and continental rifts. The thickness of the brittle layer in oceans near the ridge is no more than 510 km, whereas for continents, it reaches 2040 km. All these patterns are reflected in the seismicity of rifts. The general tendency in the distribution of epicenters is the following: their concentration increases from earlier stages of rifting to later ones. It is clearly seen in the case of Africa. During incipient rifting in South Africa the seismicity is very scattered, there is no preferred orientation of active faults. At later stages Western and Eastern Rifts. almost all epicenters are located within rift troughs and on the border faults. When a continental rift turns into an oceanic rift, all seismicity is confined to MOR. Lastly, one can notice that most epicenters are located along transform faults during the transition from slow-spreading ridges to fast-spreading ridge. Another tendency is the increasing role of transverse faults during rifting. It was shown above for African rifts that the most active zones are normal faults and the largest seismic events occur there. There are some large zones of transverse faults as well, but their seismicity is many times less, and as a whole, strikeslip earthquakes are less frequent than normal faults. A different picture is in the oceans. Here, the greater part of the seismic moment release occurs on transform faults and their relative contribution increases with the spreading rate. It is clearly seen on the summary histogram of the rake value for the two kinds of rifts Fig. 6.. Probably, it is worth estimating the most general characteristics of seismicity. The first of these is the total seismic moment release. The NEIC catalogue

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P.O. Sobole, D.V. Rundquist r Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors 111 (1999) 253266

Fig. 8. The magnitudefrequency relations for the interplate earthquakes. 1. All oceanic rift zones; 2. all oceanic transform zones; 3. Red Sea and Aden rifts; 4. African rifts.

m b G 4.0. for the period 19641995 was used to calculate seismic moments and their sum for transform and rift zones of MOR, and for the African Arabian rift system. The major difficulty for direct

comparison is that the seismicity of MOR has a practically linear distribution, whereas a seismicity spreads over some area in the case of continental rifts. Therefore, the density of seismic moment release was used the ratio of M0 to the total length of faults.; beside the African rifts, the perimeter of rift valleys was used as the denominator. The calculation of this quantity upper and lower values, which were calculated with and without consideration of cresttransform intersections. gave the following results: 3.33 and 1.73 = 10 13 N for all transforms, 0.99 and 0.33 = 10 13 N for the rifts of MOR, and 0.20 = 10 13 N for the whole AfricaArabian rift system the values are very close for its oceanic and continental part.. Hence, the order of released seismic energy is approximately the same for continental rifts and MOR crest zone, but it is higher for the transform faults. It should be noted that these values generally decrease with the spreading rate for both kinds of MOR. It is notable that the values of the specific seismic moment are very close for continental and oceanic rifts, although the velocities of spreading are quite different, being several centimeters per year at oceanic rifts and no more than 0.4 cmryear at continental rifts Jestin et al., 1994.. The magnitudefrequency relation reflects regular variations of seismic regime during the process of rifting as well. The b-value increases in the transformation seriesoceanic rift zonestransitional rifts

Fig. 9. The evolutionary series of rifts.

P.O. Sobole, D.V. Rundquist r Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors 111 (1999) 253266 Table 3 Main differences between oceanic and continental rifts Mid-oceanic ridges Relatively high velocities of tectonic processes Thin homogeneous lithosphere Earthquakes are localized strictly in axial parts The leading role of transform faults in seismicity, a great number of strike-slip faults Seismicity shows no relation to the time of ridge formation, the only factors being the rate of spreading and the ratio between transform and rift parts Continental rifts Relatively low velocities of tectonic processes Relatively thick inhomogeneous lithosphere The seismicity is rather scattered Seismicity linked mainly with normal faults, a lack of strike-slip faults Seismicity is determined by the evolutionary stage of rift development

265

intracontinental rifts Fig. 8.. It seems that the shape of the curve changes as well, becoming concave instead of convex.

5. Conclusions A comparative analysis of seismic and tectonic characteristics of two major kinds of divergent structuresoceanic and intracontinental riftsis essentially qualitative in character. Nevertheless, it seems not to be absolutely useless. First, the estimation of the role of main components of MOR was given for the whole Earth. There exist regular interrelations between some principal seismic and tectonic characteristics of MOR within the whole range of the spreading rate, which mirrors the common nature of the seismic process for these geodynamic environments and the important role of thermal structure. On the other hand, for continental rifts, one notes a difference in the degree of seismic activity depending on the stage of rifting. Hence, analysis of continental seismicity requires consideration of factors of geological evolution that play practically no role in the case of oceanic lithosphere. The comparison of geological and seismic data for the East African region has allowed us to outline regular changes of the seismic regime during development of the rift zone from the stage of incipient rift to the mature oceanic rift. In the evolutionary series wintracontinental incipient riftx wintracontinental mature riftx wintercontinental riftx woceanic slow-spreading riftx woceanic fast-spreading riftx, one can observe a gradual decrease of the role of rifts sensu stricto, as extension structures. and increase of the role of strikeslip

faults Fig. 9.. A concentration of epicenters along major faults occurs as well. In the general case, the level of seismic energy becomes lower, although the rate of deformation increases. Only for continental rifts the seismicity depends on evolutionary stage, while in oceans the age of a ridge does not matter and the main factors are spreading rate and correlation between rift and transform parts. The main facts that distinguish of continental and oceanic rifting are summarized in Table 3.

Acknowledgements We thank V.I. Keilis-Borok and A.V. Lander for their participation in discussions and A. Johnson and A.L. Petrosyan for their remarks. The work was supported by the International Center of Scientific and Technical Cooperation project no. 415-96. and by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research project no. 96-05-66021..

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