Extension of the continental lithosphere can lead to the formation of rifted margins with contrasting tectonic and geomorphologic characteristics. Many of these characteristics depend on the manner extension spatially distributed. Here we investigate the feedback between tectonics and the transfer of material at the surface resulting from erosion, transport, and sedimentation and discuss how they influence the rifting process. We use large‐scale (1,200×600 km), high‐resolution (1 km) numerical experiments coupling a 2‐D upper‐mantle‐scale thermo‐mechanical model with a planform 2‐D surface processes model. We test the sensitivity of the coupled models to varying crust‐lithospheric rheology and erosional efficiency. We confirm that the development and long‐term support of topography is dependent on the strength of the coupling between the crust and the mantle lithosphere. Strong coupling promotes high topography as the integrated strength of the lithosphere is sufficient to support the additional stress. Weak coupling results in the stress being relaxed via viscous flow in the middle/lower crust and leads to more subdued topography. Erosion and transport of sediment modulates this behavior but has only minor effect on the overall structure of the rift. High erosion efficiency counters the development of high topography and creates complex landscape morphologies while low erosion efficiency allows for longer standing high topography and results in more simple landscape morphologies. The transfer of mass between the continent and the basin alters the stress field at the onshore‐offshore transition and facilitates the development of faults, increasing their offsets and keeping them active over a longer period.

中文翻译：

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被动边缘经历主动表面过程的形态构造演化：使用数值模型的大规模实验

大陆岩石圈的扩展可能导致形成具有明显构造和地貌特征的裂谷边缘。这些特征中的许多特征取决于扩展空间分布的方式。在这里，我们调查构造，侵蚀，运移和沉积引起的地表物质转移之间的反馈，并讨论它们如何影响裂谷作用。我们使用大规模（1,200×600 km），高分辨率（1 km）数值实验，将二维上地幔热力学模型与平面二维表面过程模型相结合。我们测试了耦合模型对不同的地壳—岩石圈流变学和侵蚀效率的敏感性。我们确认地形的发展和长期支持取决于地壳与地幔岩石圈之间耦合的强度。由于岩石圈的综合强度足以支撑附加应力，因此强耦合会促进高形貌。弱耦合导致应力通过中/下部地壳中的粘性流松弛，并导致形貌更柔和。沉积物的侵蚀和迁移调节了这种行为，但对裂谷的整体结构影响很小。高侵蚀效率会阻碍高地形的发展，并产生复杂的景观形态，而低侵蚀效率会导致长期保持较高的地形并导致更简单的景观形态。