Which plates are a involved the East African Rift Valley?
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 eastern branch of the rift passes through Ethiopia and Kenya, and the western branch forms a giant arc from Uganda to Malawi.
Where is the East African Rift Zone?
East African Rift System, also called Afro-Arabian Rift Valley, one of the most extensive rifts on Earth’s surface, extending from Jordan in southwestern Asia southward through eastern Africa to Mozambique. The system is some 4,000 miles (6,400 km) long and averages 30–40 miles (48–64 km) wide.
What is happening to the African plate at the East African Rift?
Summary: The African continent is slowly separating into several large and small tectonic blocks along the diverging East African Rift System, continuing to Madagascar – the long island just off the coast of Southeast Africa – that itself will also break apart into smaller islands.
What is the East African Rift and what caused it?
The East African Rift is one of the great tectonic features of Africa, caused by fracturing of the Earth’s crust. On one side of the rift lies the Nubian (or African) tectonic plate, which includes the older continental crust of Africa.
What plates are involved in the Great Rift Valley?
The African plate, sometimes called the Nubian plate, carries most of the continent, while the smaller Somali plate carries Horn of Africa. The two major rift valley systems of the East African Rift are the Gregory Rift and the Western Rift.
What type of plate movement caused the Rift Valley?
The Baikal Rift Valley is formed by a divergent plate boundary, where the Amur plate is slowly tearing itself away from the Eurasian plate, and has been doing so for about 25 million years.
At what rate is the African rift widening?
The Arabian plate is moving away from Africa at a rate of about 1 inch per year, while the two African plates are separating even slower, between half an inch to 0.2 inches per year, according to Macdonald.
Is the Rift Valley widening?
In the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the North American plate and the Eurasian plate are splitting apart at a rate of about 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) per year. Over millions of years, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge has formed rift valleys as wide as 15 kilometers (9 miles).
Is Africa splitting in half?
Scientists say a new ocean will form in Africa as the continent continues to split into two. It is an active continental rift that began millions of years ago, splitting at 7mm annually.
What is a rift system?
A rift valley is a lowland region that forms where Earth’s tectonic plates move apart, or rift. Rift valleys are found both on land and at the bottom of the ocean, where they are created by the process of seafloor spreading. Tectonic plates are huge, rocky slabs of Earth’s lithosphere—its crust and upper mantle.
What type of fault is the East African Rift?
divergent plate boundary
The East African Rift Valley (EAR) is a developing divergent plate boundary in East Africa. Here the eastern portion of Africa, the Somalian plate, is pulling away from the rest of the continent, that comprises the Nubian plate.
