Tectono-thermal evolution of a long-lived segment of the East African Rift System: Thermochronological insights from the North Lokichar Basin, Turkana, Kenya

Abstract

The Turkana Depression is a structurally complex and long-lived segment of the East African Rift System (EARS), with associated magmatism and strain nucleating there in the late Paleogene. The anomalously wide, ~N-S rift zone defines the topographic lowlands separating the Ethiopian and East African Domes. The atypical architecture and morphology of the Turkana Depression has often been attributed to the influence of an oblique, pre-existing lithospheric heterogeneity speculated to result from earlier Cretaceous-early Paleogene Anza-South Sudan rifting. However, this hypothesized period of earlier rifting is poorly constrained due to the obscuring effects of extensive Cenozoic rifting and vo..