What caused the East African Rift Valley to form?
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 tectonic plates formed Great Rift Valley?
It was formed by the Thingvellir rift, where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are tearing, or rifting, apart over a hotspot on the island of Iceland.
What is the tectonic setting of East Africa?
A narrow zone, the rift 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) per year.
What is the formation of Ethiopian rift valley?
The Rift Valley of Ethiopia, like its extension in East and central Africa, was formed by extensive downfaulting of the earth’s crust at the end of the Tertiary and at the beginning of the Pleistocene period.
What formed the Great Rift Valley quizlet?
The Great Rift Valley was formed when two tectonic plates split apart and left a rift. List some of the spectacular features that you would find in the Great Rift Valley. You would find mountains, escarpments, volcanoes, rivers, and large lakes in the Great Rift Valley.
How was the East African Rift system formed?
The East African Rift Valley (EAR) is a developing divergent plate boundary in East Africa. The Nubian and Somalian plates are also separating from the Arabian plate in the north, thus creating a ‘Y’ shaped rifting system. These plates intersect in the Afar region of Ethiopia at what is known as a ‘triple junction’.
What is the effect of the formation of Rift Valley on Ethiopian highlands?
The Ethiopian Highlands were eventually bisected by the Great Rift Valley as the African continental crust pulled apart. This rifting gave rise to large alkaline basalt shield volcanoes beginning about 30–31 million years ago.
What are the effects of the formation of the Rift Valley on the physiographic structure of Ethiopia and the Horn?
The formation of the Rift Valley has the following structural (physiographic) effects: It divides the Ethiopian Plateau into two. It separates the Arabian landmass from African landmass. It causes the formation of the Dead Sea, Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden troughs.
What caused Africa’s Great Rift Valley quizlet?
The Great Rift Valley was formed when two tectonic plates split apart and left a rift.
How are Rift Valley formed and what makes the Jordan Rift Valley significant?
The Jordan Rift Valley was formed many millions of years ago in the Miocene epoch (23.8 – 5.3 Myr ago) when the Arabian Plate moved northward and then eastward away from Africa. One million years later, the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan Rift Valley rose so that the sea water stopped flooding the area.
What is the formation of Ethiopian Rift Valley?
How was the Rift Valley of Ethiopia formed?
The rift developed as the Nubian and Somali plates began to separate during the Miocene Period along the East African rift system. In the northern part of the rift, extension within the valley is now thought to be mainly along these faulted and magmatically active segments.