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Abstract
The rifting of continents involves faulting (tectonism) and magmatism, which reflect
the strain-rate and temperature dependent processes of solid-state deformation and
decompression melting within the Earth. Most models of this rifting have treated tectonism
and magmatism separately, and few numerical simulations have attempted to include
continental break-up and melting, let alone describe how continental rifting evolves
into seafloor spreading. Models of this evolution conventionally juxtapose continental
and oceanic crust. Here we present observations that support the existence of a zone
of exhumed continental mantle, several tens of kilometres wide, between oceanic and
continental crust on continental margins where magma-poor rifting has taken place.
We present geophysical and geological observations from the west Iberia margin, and
geological mapping of margins of the former Tethys ocean now exposed in the Alps.
We use these complementary findings to propose a conceptual model that focuses on
the final stage of continental extension and break-up, and the creation of a zone
of exhumed continental mantle that evolves oceanward into seafloor spreading. We conclude
that the evolving stress and thermal fields are constrained by a rising and narrowing
ridge of asthenospheric mantle, and that magmatism and rates of extension systematically
increase oceanward.