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A map of East Africa showing some of the historically active volcanoes (as red triangles) and the Afar Triangle (shaded at the center), which is a so-called triple junction (or triple point) where three plates are pulling away from one another: the Arabian Plate and two parts of the African Plate—the Nubian and Somali—splitting along the East African Rift Zone Main rift faults, plates ...
The Great Rift Valley (Swahili: Bonde la ufa) is a series of contiguous geographic depressions, approximately 6000 or 7,000 kilometres (4,300 mi) in total length, the definition varying between sources, that runs from the southern Turkish Hatay Province in Asia, through the Red Sea, to Mozambique in Southeast Africa. [1][2] While the name ...
At zones of continent-to-continent rifting, divergent boundaries may cause new ocean basin to form as the continent splits, spreads, the central rift collapses, and ocean fills the basin, e.g., the East African Rift, the Baikal Rift, the West Antarctic Rift, the Rio Grande Rift. Convergent boundary. Convergent boundaries (destructive boundaries ...
Afar Triple Junction. Coordinates: 11°30′N 43°00′E. The triple junction is at 11°30′N 43°00′E, inside the Afar Triangle (at center shaded red). Fault lines are in black, and red triangles show historically active volcanoes. The Afar Triple Junction (also called the Afro-Arabian Rift System) is located along a divergent plate ...
List of tectonic plate interactions. Three types of plate boundary. Convergent boundary. Divergent boundary. Transform boundary. Tectonic plate interactions are classified into three basic types: [1] Convergent boundaries are areas where plates move toward each other and collide. These are also known as compressional or destructive boundaries.
The African Plate, also known as the Nubian Plate, is a major tectonic plate that includes much of the continent of Africa (except for its easternmost part) and the adjacent oceanic crust to the west and south. It is bounded by the North American Plate and South American Plate to the west (separated by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge); the Arabian Plate ...
Releasing bends along strike-slip faults. When a strike-slip fault is offset along strike such as to create a gap e.g. a left-stepping bend on a sinistral fault, a zone of extension or transtension is generated. Such bends are known as releasing bends or extensional stepovers and often form pull-apart basins or rhombochasms.
In one of the hottest places on Earth, along an arid stretch of East Africa’s Afar region, it’s possible to stand on the exact spot where, deep underground, the continent is splitting apart.