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African Rift Valley: Formation & Overview

What Is a Rift Valley?


A rift valley can be defined as a valley that is created by splitting of the Earth's crust. Rift valleys differ from
river or glacial valleys in that they are created by tectonic activity, rather than surface climatic forces.

Rift Valley; note steep walls

They are often narrow with flat floors and steep walls, and most of them occur in oceanic crust. Two major
rift valleys occur on the land surface, or in thecontinental crust: the Baikal Rift Valley in Siberia, and the
African Rift.

How Do Rift Valleys Form?


We've established that rift valleys are formed due to a splitting in the Earth's crust. How does that happen?
The Earth's crust is constantly reforming due to the movement of tectonic plates. Tectonic plates are
sections of the Earth's surface layer, or crust andupper mantle that move on the currents of the
underlying mantle.

Tectonic plates of Earth

At the edges of the tectonic plates, the plates may be driven together to create mountain ranges (such as
the Himalaya Mountain Range), or one plate may slide under the other, often causing volcanic activity.
Plates often slide against one another, building tremendous pressure that causes earthquakes. Or, the
plates may be pulling apart from one another; this is what creates a rift valley.

Formation of the East African Rift System


The African Rift, also known as the East African Rift System (or EARS), is actually a system of rifts
created by the separating of the Nubian Plate and theSomalian Plate , which together comprise
theAfrican Plate of the African continent.

Map of East Africa showing historically important volcanoes as red


triangles and the separating of the Somalian and Nubian sections of the
African Plate

The system began developing during the Miocene (22-25 million years ago) and stretches thousands of
kilometers across Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, the East African Great lakes, and beyond into the Red Sea

and Gulf of Aiden. So, although we tend to think of the African Rift as one rift valley, it is actually a complex
series of related rifts.
Geologists are still debating the subtleties of the formation of the East African Rift Valley. One hypothesis is
that volcanic activity creates hot areas under the crust, causing bulges in the crust anduprising in those
areas. This results in the stretching of the crust between these bulges (in this case, the Ethiopian and
Kenyan bulges) to stretch and pull apart. The stretching causes the crust to thin and drop, or subside,
below sea level, and eventually, the valley may fill with water.

Diagram of rift valley and ocean development over


time

At this time, there are three locations in the African rift valley that lie below sea level; they are the Afar
Depression and the lake beds of Lakes Malawi and Tanganyika.

Satellite image of the Afar Depression

Volcanic activity above-ground was another important factor in the shaping of the rift region; the two highest
mountains in Africa, Mounts Kilimanjaro and Kenya, are both volcanic cones.

Mount Kilimanjaro

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