What process creates rift valleys?
What process creates rift valleys?
seafloor spreading
How was the East African Rift Valley formed?
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.
What causes rifting?
Rifting can be caused when hot material from a mantle plume reaches the base of a continental plate and causes the overlying lithosphere to heat up. In addition to this the uwards movement of the plume against the base of the plate results in extensional forces, which can cause rifting.
Why Rift Valley is found between two block mountains?
A rift valley is a linear shaped lowland between several highlands or mountain ranges created by the action of a geologic rift or fault. 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.
Why is the Rift Valley important?
The system of rift valleys that characterizes the African continent represents a perfect environment to understand the evolution of mankind; for the important paleoanthropological discoveries in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zaire, the African rift valleys are indeed considered the “cradle of mankind”, that is …
What symbolizes a Rift Valley?
The rift valleys are enormous fractures affecting the continental plates that widen progressively with time: they represent the first stages in the complex process of extension and rupture of continents and anticipate the development of new oceanic basins between them.
In which two continents is the Great Rift Valley?
The Great Rift Valley is a series of contiguous geographic trenches, approximately 7,000 kilometres (4,300 mi) in total length, that runs from the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon which is in Asia to Mozambique in Southeast Africa.
What is the rift?
In geology, a rift is a linear zone where the lithosphere is being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics. Major rifts occur along the central axis of most mid-ocean ridges, where new oceanic crust and lithosphere is created along a divergent boundary between two tectonic plates.
Which is the deepest lake in Kenya?
Lake Naivasha
Why are most Rift Valley lakes salty?
2)Most rift valley lakes experience intense evaporation leading to higher salt concentrations in the lake. 4)Most rivers flowing into the rift valley lakes pass over salty bedrocks, dissolving them into the lakes. 5)Most rift valley lakes lack regular inflow of fresh water to dissolve salt deposits.
Which is the longest rift valley of the world which lakes are formed here?
Western or Albertine Rift Valley lakes The lakes of the Western or Albertine Rift, with Lake Victoria, include the largest, deepest, and oldest of the Rift Valley Lakes. They are also referred to as the Central African lakes.
Why is Lake Natron red?
This bright red lake is the world’s most caustic body of water, but not to everything. An endemic species of fish, the alkaline tilapia, lives along the edges of the hotspring inlets, and the lake actually derives its color from salt-loving microorganisms that thrive in its alkaline waters.
Why is Lake Natron so dangerous?
The alkaline water in Lake Natron has a pH as high as 10.5 and is so caustic it can burn the skin and eyes of animals that aren’t adapted to it. The water’s alkalinity comes from the sodium carbonate and other minerals that flow into the lake from the surrounding hills.