Strain accommodation by slow slip and dyking in a youthful continental rift, East Africa

Continental rifts initiate and develop through repeated episodes of faulting and magmatism, yet strain partitioning between faulting and magmatism during discrete rifting episodes remains poorly documented. It is shown that most of the strain during the July–August 2007 seismic crisis in the Natron rift, Tanzania, was released aseismically. This event provides evidence for strain accommodation by magma intrusion, in addition to slip along normal faults, during the initial stages of continental rifting, and before significant crustal thinning.