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The Red Sea Rift is a mid-ocean ridge between two tectonic plates, the African plate and the Arabian plate. It extends from the Dead Sea Transform fault system, and ends at an intersection with the Aden Ridge and the East African Rift , forming the Afar triple junction in the Afar Depression of the Horn of Africa .
Map of the Great Rift Valley. The Great Rift Valley (Swahili: Bonde la ufa) is a series of contiguous geographic depressions, approximately 6,000 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.
It is underlain by the Red Sea Rift, which is part of the Great Rift Valley. The Red Sea has a surface area of roughly 438,000 km 2 (169,000 sq mi), [1] is about 2,250 km (1,400 mi) long, and 355 km (221 mi) wide at its widest point. It has an average depth of 490 m (1,610 ft), and in the central Suakin Trough it reaches its maximum depth of ...
In the western Mediterranean, the relative motions of the Eurasian and African plates produce a combination of lateral and compressive forces, concentrated in a zone known as the Azores–Gibraltar Fault Zone. Along its northeast margin, the African plate is bounded by the Red Sea Rift where the Arabian plate is moving away from the African plate.
Manda-Hararo rift in the Afar region of Ethiopia with Dabbahu Volcano in the background. The Red Sea Rift is between the African (or Nubian) and Arabian plates. The rift runs along the length of the Red Sea, starting from the Dead Sea to the Afar triple junction. Within the rift, in the Red Sea, there are many volcanoes, including the Jabal al ...
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 ...
A simplified geologic map of the Afar Depression. The Afar Depression is the product of a tectonic triple-rifts junction (the Afar triple junction), where the spreading ridges forming the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden emerge on land and meet the East African Rift. The conjunction of these three plates of Earth's crust is near Lake Abbe.
The Red Sea rifting began in the Eocene, and the separation of Africa and Arabia occurred approximately in the Oligocene, and since then the Arabian plate has been moving toward the Eurasian plate. [5] The opening of the Red Sea rift led to volcanic activity.