“…Earlier phases of extension may also modify the crustal and lithospheric structure of rift systems. Faults related to earlier rift phases interact with, and may exhibit controls over the growth of newly formed normal faults (e.g., Bell et al, ; Claringbould et al, ; Deng, Fossen, et al, ; Duffy et al, ; Henstra et al, ; Henstra et al, ; Morley, ; Nixon et al, ); while, at the whole‐rift scale, lithospheric thinning associated with earlier phases of extension may focus strain during later rift phases (e.g., Boone et al, ; Brune et al, ; Claringbould et al, ; Cowie et al, ; Naliboff & Buiter, ; Odinsen et al, ). Previous studies often focused on local (less than tens of kilometers) scale aspects of the influence of preexisting structural heterogeneities on rift geometry and kinematics, with relatively few studies examining the regional, whole‐rift (hundreds of kilometers) scale (Corti, ; Daly et al, ; Fazlikhani et al, ; Morley, ).…”