Structural characteristics of divergent margins
Rifting, sedimentary and oceanic basins, and the formation of continental margins result from processes that tend to thin and extend the continental crust.
Normal faults in the upper brittle crust and flat foliations in the ductile lower crust result from of a stress regime in tension. The combined action of normal faulting and horizontal flattenning is responsible for thinning and extension of the continen
As seafloor spreading occur, stretching and thinning of the continental margin stops. Thermal subsidence follows so that the sedimentary pile deposited on the margins consist of pre-, syn- and post-rift packages.
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