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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. [2] The rift system consists of three microplates, the Victoria Microplate to the north, and the Rovuma and Lwandle microplates to the south. The ...
The Victoria Microplate or Victoria Plate is a small tectonic plate in East Africa. It is bounded on all sides by parts of the active East African Rift System. It is currently rotating anticlockwise. Its boundaries are close to those of the mainly Archaean Tanzania Craton, with the two arms of the rift system having propagated along the surrounding Proterozoic shear belts. To the northwest ...
The term Great Rift Valley is most often used to refer to the valley of the East African Rift, the divergent plate boundary which extends from the Afar Triple Junction southward through eastern Africa, and is in the process of splitting the African Plate into two new and separate plates.
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.
Some intracontinental rifts are essentially failed continental breakup axes, and some of these form triple junctions with plate boundaries. The East African Rift, for example, forms a triple junction with the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, both of which have progressed to the seafloor spreading stage.
The western boundary with the African Plate is diverging to form the East African Rift, which stretches south from the triple junction in the Afar depression. The southern boundary with the Nubian-African Plate is a diffuse plate boundary with the Lwandle Plate. [2] The Seychelles and the Mascarene Plateau are located northeast of the Madagascar.
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.
Journal of African Earth Sciences. 45 (4–5): The Dead Sea rift is a sinistral transform plate boundary separating the Sinai sub-plate in the west (part of African plate) and the Arabian plate in the east.