Kat Daniels from Cambridge University along with a team of scientists including Derek Keir from G&G, published a paper in EPSL highlighting the influence of dyke intrusion on heating the surrounding crust in extensional tectonic settings. They used numerical modelling to show that if intrusions repeatedly focus at the same location for just a few million years, then the crust will heat up and sufficiently weaken to potentially deform by ductile stretching. The work demonstrates how magma intrusion can promote ductile stretching during continental breakup.

To read the paper click here