Key Facts about Great Rift Valley

About Great Rift Valley:

• It is one of the most extensive rifts on Earth’s surface that runs along part of East Africa. It is part of a larger feature called the East African Rift System (EARS).
• It runs from Jordan in southwestern Asia to the coast of the Indian Ocean in central Mozambique.
• It runs across many countries: Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Malawi, Zambia, and Mozambique.
• Formation:
  • The valley is situated in a region where three tectonic plates meet. 
  • It was formed about 40 million years ago when tectonic plates split and gave rise to the East African Rift. 
• The area is geologically active and features volcanoes, hot springs, geysers and frequent earthquakes.
• A series of some thirty lakeslies along its length; the three largest in Africa are known as the Great Lakes and include Lake Tanganyika, the second deepest lake in the world, and Lake Victoria, the second-largest freshwater lake by surface area in the world. 
• Many of Africa’s highest mountains—including Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya, and Mount Margherita—are in ranges fronting the Rift Valley.

What is a Rift Valley?

• A rift valley is a lowland region that forms where Earth’s tectonic plates move apart, or rift. They are found on land and at the bottom of the ocean, where they are created by the process of seafloor spreading.
• They differ from river valleysand glacial valleys in that they are created by tectonic activity and not the process of erosion.