Great Rift Valley

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Map of the Great Rift Valley

The Great Rift Valley (Swahili: Bonde la ufa) is a series of contiguous geographic trenches, approximately 7,000 kilometres (4,300 mi) in total length, that runs from Lebanon in Asia to Mozambique in Southeast Africa.[1] While the name continues in some usages, it is rarely used in geology as it is considered an imprecise merging of separate though related rift and fault systems.

This valley extends northward for 5,950 km through the eastern part of Africa, through the

Western Asia. Several deep, elongated lakes, called ribbon lakes, exist on the floor of this rift valley: Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika
are examples of such lakes. The region has a unique ecosystem and contains a number of Africa's wildlife parks.

The Great Rift Valley, Location: Uganda.
The Great Rift Valley, Location: Uganda.
Map of the Great Rift Valley. English version. The background map and the locator map are raster images embedded into the SVG file.
Map of the Great Rift Valley. English version. The background map and the locator map are raster images embedded into the SVG file.

The term Great Rift Valley is most often used to refer to the valley of the

Nubian Plate and the Somali Plate
.

Theoretical extent

Diagram of a rift valley's future evolution into a sea
Afar Depression

Today these rifts and faults are seen as distinct, although connected, but originally, the Great Rift Valley was thought to be a single feature that extended from

East African mountains. It included what today is called the Lebanese section of the Dead Sea Transform, the Jordan Rift Valley, Red Sea Rift and the East African Rift.[2]
These rifts and faults were formed 35 million years ago.

Asia

The northernmost part of the Rift corresponds to the central section of what is called today the

Anti-Lebanon Mountains. Further south it is known as the Hula Valley separating the Galilee mountains and the Golan Heights.[3]

The

Lake Hula into the Sea of Galilee in Israel. The Rift then continues south through the Jordan Rift Valley into the Dead Sea on the Israeli-Jordanian border. From the Dead Sea southwards, the Rift is occupied by the Wadi Arabah, then the Gulf of Aqaba, and then the Red Sea.[3]

Off the southern tip of Sinai in the Red Sea, the

Afar Depression of East Africa. The junction of these three rifts is called the Afar Triple Junction.[3]

Africa

East African Rift Valley
East Africa with active volcanoes (red triangles) and the Afar Triangle (shaded, center)—a triple junction where three plates are pulling away from one another.
date QS:P571,+2050-00-00T00:00:00Z/7,P1319,+2009-11-25T00:00:00Z/11,P1326,+2010-02-03T00:00:00Z/11
This Envisat radar image captures volcanoes dotted across the landscape in Tanzania, including the distinctive Ol Doinyo Lengai (at lower left), in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa. The Gelai Volcano (2942 m) is visible at the top, and the Kitumbeine volcano

The East African Rift follows the Red Sea to the end before turning inland into the

Eastern Rift Valley
.

The Western Rift, also called the

Ruwenzori Range. It contains the Rift Valley lakes, which include some of the deepest lakes in the world (up to 1,470 metres (4,820 ft) deep at Lake Tanganyika
).

Much of this area lies within the boundaries of national parks such as

African Great Lakes
were formed as the result of the rift, and most lie in territories within the rift.

In

alkaline, while the freshwater springs supplying Lake Naivasha
are essential to support its current biological variety.

The southern section of the Rift Valley includes Lake Malawi, the third-deepest freshwater body in the world, which reaches 706 metres (2,316 ft) in depth and separates the Nyassa plateau of Northern Mozambique from Malawi. The rift extends southwards from Lake Malawi as the valley of the Shire River, which flows from the lake into the Zambezi River. The rift continues south of the Zambezi as the Urema Valley of central Mozambique. Some people would wonder how long will the rift remain stable.[4]

See also

References

  1. .
  2. .
  3. ^ .
  4. ^ Steinbruch, Franziska (2010). Geology and geomorphology of the Urema Graben with emphasis on the evolution of Lake Urema, Journal of African Earth Sciences, Volume 58, Issue 2, 2010, Pages 272-284. ISSN 1464-343X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2010.03.007.

Further reading

External links