A rift valley is a linear shaped lowland between several highlands or mountain ranges created by the action of a geologic rift or fault. Also Know, where is the East African Rift located? In fact, the Kenya dome is the same plume of hotspot that gave rise to the Ethiopian rifting. The East African Rift is an energetic continental rift zone in eastern Africa that seems to be a arising divergent tectonic plate boundary. Thus, what is a whole Rift in Eastern Africa is a sequence of related rift basins that create the distinctive topography and geology of Eastern Africa. In this way, what plate boundary is the East African Rift Valley? ~The East African Rift Valley was formed by three different tectonic plates diverging in a y-shape. Africa Is Splitting in Two, and Here's the Proof. It provides a glimpse into the development of the Ethiopian Rift, which is the oldest fracture in Ethiopia’s Afar region. It has been moving over the past 100 million years or so in a general northeast direction. In fact, these plates are not only moving away from each other but also away northward. Do raspberry leaves look like poison ivy? The valley is situated in a region where three tectonic plates meet. A rift valley is formed on a divergent plate boundary, a crustal extension or spreading apart of the surface, which is subsequently further deepened by the forces of erosion. Does metronidazole stop diarrhea in cats? Mount Kenya and Mount Kilimanjaro are two of the tall peaks formed by volcanoes in this area. The Rift Valley is the result of an ancient series of faults, rifts, and volcanoes deriving from the shifting of tectonic plates at the junction between the Somalian and the African plates. The area is geologically active, and features volcanoes, hot springs, geysers, and frequent earthquakes. As the rift grows deep, it forms a zone consisting of continental and basaltic rocks which gradually drops below sea level. Two arms of a triple junction on the supercontinent Pangaea “opened” the ocean, while the aulacogen formed the rift valley known as the Benue Trough through what is now southern Nigeria. In fact, there is a series of them occurring further south as well extending into Tanzania and Kenya. The East African Rift Valley, as the region is known, formed where the Somalian and Nubian plates are pulling away from the Arabian Plate. The East African Rift Valley stretches over 3,000km from the Gulf of Aden in the north towards Zimbabwe in the south, splitting the African plate into two unequal parts: the Somali and Nubian plates. The Afar Triple Junction is in the northern end. As they form, they fracture the brittle outer crust forming the traditional graben structure. There the rifts have dropped below sea level. Lake Naivasha is a freshwater lake situated in the southwest of Naivasha town at an altitude of ... Wildlife had declined by about 2 thirds since the 1970s. During the formation of the African rift valley, there was a lot of faulting. It is part of the seismically and volcanically active portion of the System. A piece of East Africa is expected to break off the main continent in tens of millions of years. The process is called "rifting" and is still going on today. What is the longest rift on Earth's surface? The two branches are called the Western Rift Valley and the Eastern Rift Valley. Rift valleys can also form at transform faults, where tectonic plates are grinding past each other. Tectonic plates are large sections of Earth’s crust. What country is being split by two plates. How do you form the subjunctive in French? The East Rift Valley in Taiwan runs along the east side of the Island near the seacoast. However, most current geological thinking is that flow of the heat from under the mantle is causing thermal swells in Ethiopia’s Afar region and central Kenya, which can one see as Highlands. The Great Rift Valley is part of an intra-continental ridge system that runs through Kenya from north to south. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The place where the Nubian Plate and the Somalian Plate meets forms a junction in Ethiopia. The Rift Valley, also known as the Great Rift Valley or Eastern Rift Valley, is a geological feature due to the movement of tectonic plates and mantle plumes that runs south from Jordan in southwest Asia, through East Africa and down to Mozambique in southern Africa. The eastern branch of the rift passes through Ethiopia and Kenya, and the western branch forms a giant arc from Uganda to Malawi. African rift valleys were formed by the separation of tectonic plates. What is internal and external criticism of historical sources? Therefore, it is clear that the divisions have different names but are the same. It has also given rise to the Ethiopian rift. In Kenya, the Rift Valley is above sea level and occupied by lakes at various locations. It lies east of the … Seafloor spreading at the north end of the system created the Red Sea, separating the Arabian Peninsula on the Arabian Plate from the African continent on the Nubian African Plate and will eventually connect the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. The branches radiate from a point in Ethiopia with a 120 degrees’ separation called the triple junction. The lined faults cut the main fault perpendicular at an acute angle. As is evidenced by the high topographic dome, a hot spot exists in central Kenya, which is exactly analogous to the rift in Ethiopia. The Great Rift Valley is a series of connected rift valleys. In this way, what caused the East African Rift Valley? List World Rift/Valley Length Earth West Antarctic Rift Midcontinent Rift System 2,000 km (1,200 mi) Grand Canyon 277 km (200 mi) Colca Canyon. Water flows down to the valley floors, creating rivers and lakes. Research and studies are still underway. Africa is witnessing the birth of a new ocean, according to scientists at the Royal Society. The rift extends from south in Mozambique all the way up north in Jordan to the southwestern Asia. It was formed during the process of formation of the African rift valley. Continental rift valleys are huge fractures on the surface of the planet that progressively break continental plates with the eventual development of new oceans. The system is some 4,000 miles (6,400 km) long and averages 30–40 miles (48–64 km) wide. The most striking features in the East African Rift Valley are the numerous parallel and linear fault lines allied with the north-south axis caused by slip motion. The African Plate's speed is estimated at around 2.15 cm (0.85 in) per year. Geologists know that the Rift Valley was formed by violent subterranean forces that tore apart the earth's crust. What is happening at the East African Rift Valley? Other notable examples include the Baikal Rift Valley (Russia) and the Rhine Rift Valley (Germany). The eastern branch of … The East African Rift is perhaps the largest rift valley in the world ,stretching from as far as Ethiopia at the Afar Triple Junction in the north to the south in Mozambique. With reference to the figure above describe the characteristic features of the East African Rift Valley and explain how it was formed. The entire East African Rift System, meanwhile, extends some 6,400 kilometres (4,000 miles) north to south from Syria in south-west Asia, down through the Red Sea and along the African coast all the way to Mozambique in the south-east of the continent. The rift, a narrow zone, is a developing divergent tectonic plate boundary where the African Plate is in the process of splitting into two tectonic plates, called the Somali Plate and the Nubian Plate, at a rate of 6–7 mm (0.24–0.28 in) annually. A rift valley refers to a lowland region where tectonic plates rift, or move apart. The Great Rift Valley is the best known rift valley in the world. How deep is the East African Rift Valley? It is 17 kilometers long. The shadows cast by the afternoon sun make the fault scarps appear very prominent. The stress caused in the crustal plates led to the melting of the subsurface layer into magma, and the volcanism around Kilimanjaro occurred due to this magma (high proportion of silicates). January 14, 2012 JPEG The East African Rift is one of the great tectonic features of Africa, caused by fracturing of the Earth’s crust. The exact formation mechanism of the African Rift Valley is a debate that is on-going among geophysicists and geologists. 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