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    The East African Rift Valley

    Uploaded by

    Khalisha Aulia Syahputri
    rift valley

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    The East African Rift Valley

    Uploaded by

    Khalisha Aulia Syahputri
    4 views3 pages
    rift valley

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    the-east-african-rift-valley

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    rift valley

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    4 views3 pages

    The East African Rift Valley

    Uploaded by

    Khalisha Aulia Syahputri
    rift valley

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
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    The East African Rift Valley: Divergent boundary in an area of continental crust

    Tectonic activity splits continental crust much in the same way it does along mid-ocean
    ridges. The East African Rift Valley is an example of a divergent boundary in an area of
    continental crust. It is one the geologic wonders of the world, a place where the earth's
    tectonic forces are presently trying to create new plates by splitting apart old ones.
    The East African Rift Valley formed around 25 to 30 million years ago where the Somalian
    and Nubian plates are pulling away from the Arabian Plate. The eastern branch of the rift
    passes through Ethiopia and Kenya, and the western branch forms a giant arc from Uganda
    to Malawi. The valley, which actually consists of two broadly parallel rifts, extends for 4000
    km from Mozambique to the Red Sea.

    When a divergent boundary occurs beneath a thick continental plate, the pull-apart is not
    strong enough to create a clean, single break through the thick plate material. Here the
    thick continental plate breaks into a rift-shaped structure. As the two plates pull apart,
    normal faults (breaks) develop on both sides of the rift (valley) and the central floor of the
    valley sinks lower.

    Cross-section of the Rift Valley


    Early in the rift-forming process, streams and rivers will flow into the sinking rift valley to
    form lakes. In East Africa, the rift valley is still above sea level but occupied by lakes at
    several locations.

    Astronaut photograph of the Eastern Branch of the Rift (near Kenya’s southern border)

    The area experiences volcanic activity, suggesting that the crust has been weakened and
    thinned by tension, resulting in rising magma escaping onto the surface at volcanoes such as
    Mt Kilimanjaro.

    "Mount Kilimanjaro" by Muhammad Mahdi Karim (www.micro2macro.net) Facebook -


    Own work. Licensed under GNU Free Documentation License 1.2 via Wikimedia Commons
    As the rift grows deeper it might drop below sea level allowing ocean waters to flow in. This
    will produce a narrow, shallow sea within the rift. This rift can then grow deeper and wider.
    If rifting continues a new ocean basin could be produced. The Red Sea is an example of a
    more completely developed rift. There the plates have fully separated and the central rift
    valley has dropped below sea level.

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