Everything about Aulacogen totally explained
In
geology, an
aulacogen is a failed arm of a
triple junction of a
plate tectonics rift system. A triple junction beneath a continental plate initiates a three way breakup of the continental plate. As the continental break-up develops one of the three spreading ridges typically fails or stops spreading. The resulting failed rift is called an
aulacogen and becomes a filled
graben within the continent. However, the crust in an aulacogen region remains weakened by previous rifting activity and thus seismic activity and, occasionally, volcanic activity may re-occur subsequently from time to time.
The
Mississippi embayment with the associated
New Madrid Seismic Zone is an example of an ancient aulacogen that dates back to the breakup of the ancient continent
Rodinia. This ancient rift was the site of extreme earthquakes in the early 19th century in what is now the central U.S. The
Rio Grande Rift is another example. On the Southwestern European margin (offshore
Portugal) is located another abandoned rift basin (
Lusitanian Basin) that evolved at the same time as the
Canadian Grand Banks region, where the
Hibernia oil field is located. Abandoned rift basins that have been uplifted and exposed onshore, like the Lusitanian Basin, are important analogues of deep-sea basins located on conjugated margins of ancient rift axes.
As aulacogens remain places of weakness, given the appropriate conditions, they can reactivate into active rift valleys again, as had happened to the
Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben in
Ontario and
Quebec,
Canada, an ancient aulacogen that reactivated during the breakup of
Pangaea.
The term "aulacogen" is derived from the Greek
aulax (furrow) and was first applied as a geologic term by the Soviet geologist
Nicholas Shatski in 1946.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Aulacogen'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://aulacogen.totallyexplained.com">Aulacogen Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
