This study examines the scaling relationship between fault length and displacement for the purpose of gaining a better understanding of the evolution of normal faults within the central Kenya Rift. 620 normal faults were manually mapped from a digital elevation model (DEM), with 30 m² resolution and an estimated maximum displacement of ~40–~6030 m and fault lengths of 1270 ‐ 60,600 m. To assess the contribution of fault populations to the strain accommodation from south to north, the study area has been divided into three zones of fault populations based upon their average fault orientations; zone 1 in the north is dominated by NNE striking faults, zone 2 in the centre of the rift is characterised by NNW to NNE fault trends, whereas zone 3 in the south is characterised by NNW striking fault systems. Extensional strain was estimated by summing fault heaves across six transects along the rift, which showed a progressive increase of strain from south to north. The fault length and displacement data in the three zones fit to a power law distribution. The cumulative distributions of fault length populations showed similar fractal dimension (D) in the three zones. The cumulative displacement distributions for the three zones showed a decrease in the Power-law fractal dimension with increasing strain, which implies that the strain is increasingly localized onto larger faults as the fault system becomes more evolved from south to north. Increasing displacement with increasing strain while the fault length remains almost constant may indicate that the fault system could be evolving in accordance with a constant length fault growth model, where faults lengthen quickly and then accrue displacement. Results of this study suggest that the process of progressively increasing fault system maturity and strain localization onto large faults can be observed even over a relatively small area (240 × 150 km) within the rift system. It is also suggested that patterns of fault growth can be deduced from the fractal dimension of cumulative distribution of fault size populations.

本研究检验断层长度与位移之间的比例关系，目的是更好地了解肯尼亚裂谷中部正断层的演化。从数字高程模型 (DEM) 手动绘制了 620 个正常断层，其中 30 m ²分辨率和估计的最大位移为 ~40–~6030 m，断层长度为 1270 - 60,600 m。为评价断层群对自南向北应变调节的贡献，将研究区按断层平均方向划分为三个断层群；北部 1 带以 NNE 走向断层为主，裂谷中心 2 带以 NNW 向 NNE 断裂走向为特征，南部 3 带以 NNW 走向断层系统为特征。拉伸应变是通过将沿着裂谷的六个断面的断层隆起相加来估计的，这表明应变从南到北逐渐增加。三个区域的断层长度和位移数据符合幂律分布。断层长度种群的累积分布在三个区域中显示出相似的分形维数 (D)。三个区域的累积位移分布显示幂律分形维数随着应变的增加而减小，这意味着随着断层系统从南到北的演化，应变越来越集中在更大的断层上。在断层长度几乎保持不变的情况下，随着应变的增加位移增加可能表明断层系统可以根据恒定长度断层增长模型演化，其中断层迅速延长，然后产生位移。这项研究的结果表明，即使在裂谷系统内相对较小的区域（240 × 150 公里），也可以观察到逐渐增加断层系统成熟度和应变定位到大断层的过程。还提出断层生长模式可以从断层大小种群累积分布的分形维数中推导出来。