East Africa Rift System GPS and stresses

The Victoria Microplate or Victoria Plate is a small

tectonic plate Plate tectonics (from the la, label=Late Latin, tectonicus, from the grc, τεκτονικός, lit=pertaining to building) is the generally accepted scientific theory that considers the Earth's lithosphere to comprise a number of large te ...

East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historica ...

. 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 The Tanzania Craton is an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere in central Tanzania. Some of the rocks are over 3 billion years old. Setting The Tanzania Craton forms the highest part of the East African Plateau. The craton is surr ...

, with the two arms of the rift system having propagated along the surrounding

Proterozoic The Proterozoic () is a geological eon spanning the time interval from 2500 to 538.8million years ago. It is the most recent part of the Precambrian "supereon". It is also the longest eon of the Earth's geologic time scale, and it is subdivided ...

shear belts. To the northwest, west and southwest it has a boundary with the

Nubian Plate The African 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 Pla ...

, to the northeast and east with the

Somali Plate The Somali Plate is a minor tectonic plate which straddles the Equator in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is currently in the process of separating from the African Plate along the East African Rift Valley. It is approximately centered on the isl ...

and to the southeast with the Rovuma Plate.

References

{{Geology-stub Tectonic plates Geology of Africa