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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 ...
Plate tectonics map. The East African Rift (Great Rift Valley) in eastern Africa; The Mid-Atlantic Ridge system separates the North American plate and the South American plate in the west from the African plate and the Eurasian plate in the east; The Gakkel Ridge is a slow spreading ridge located in the Arctic Ocean
The parting of these two plates formed the southern part of what used to be known as The Great Rift Valley. [3] In geological terms, the African and Somali plate separation has formed the East African Rift System (EARS), comprising two separate rifts systems - the Eastern Rift Valley, [4] and a western branch known as the Albertine Rift. [5]
The triple junction is at , inside the Afar Triangle (at center shadedFault 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 boundary dividing the Nubian, Somali, and Arabian plates.
This rift zone separates the African plate to the west from the Somali plate to the east. One hypothesis proposes a mantle plume rising beneath the Afar region pushing the crust outward, whereas an opposing hypothesis explains the rifting by dynamics in the crust, as a break in the African plate along a line of maximum weakness as plates to its ...
The Red Sea will flood the widening East African Rift valley, causing a new ocean basin to divide the continent of Africa [50] and the African Plate into the newly formed Nubian Plate and the Somali Plate. The Indian Plate will advance into Tibet by 180 km (110 mi).
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.
Geologists predict that in about 10 million years the whole 6,000 km (3,700 mi) length of the East African Rift will be submerged, forming a new ocean basin as large as today's Red Sea, and separating the Somali plate and the Horn of Africa from the rest of the continent. [9] The floor of the Afar Depression is composed of lava, mostly basalt.