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East African Rift Valley
The East African Rift (EAR) or East African Rift System (EARS) is an active continental rift zone in East Africa. The EAR began developing around the onset of the Miocene, 22–25 million years ago. It was formerly considered to be part of a larger Great Rift Valley that extended north to Asia Minor. 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 per year. The rift system consists of three microplates, the Victoria microplate to the north, and the Rovuma and Lwandle microplates to the south. The Victoria microplate is rotating anti-clockwise with respect to the African plate. Its rotation is caused by the configuration of mechanically weaker and stronger lithospheric regions in the EARS. Many of the African Great Lakes lie within the Rift Valley. Extent A series of distinct rift basins, the East Afric ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lwandle Plate
The Lwandle plate is one of three tectonic microplates, along with the Rovuma plate and Victoria plate, that make up the African plate with the Somali plate and the African plate, Nubian plate. Its discovery is very recent, so the velocity of the plate is neither well known nor well understood. Many experiments are ongoing to quantify this. The Lwandle plate lies between 30°E and 50°E, sharing a boundary with the Nubian, Somali, and Antarctic plate, Antarctic plates. The Lwandle plate is largely oceanic, lying off the southeast coast of Africa. It is currently believed that the southern part of Madagascar forms part of the Lwandlean plate, with one of the plate boundaries cutting through the island. Discovery of the Lwandle plate For many years it was widely accepted that rifting in the East African Rift system, 22–25 million years ago, resulted in the splitting of the African plate into 2 smaller plates – the Somali plate and the Nubian plate. However, most recently, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tanzania
Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to the south; Zambia to the southwest; and Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. According to a 2024 estimate, Tanzania has a population of around 67.5 million, making it the most populous country located entirely south of the equator. Many important hominid fossils have been found in Tanzania. In the Stone and Bronze Age, prehistoric migrations into Tanzania included South Cushitic languages, Southern Cushitic speakers similar to modern day Iraqw people who moved south from present-day Ethiopia; Eastern Cushitic people who moved into Tanzania from north of Lake Turkana about 2,000 and 4,000 years ago; and the Southern Nilotic languages, Southern Nilotes, including the Datooga people, Datoog, who originated fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uganda
Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The southern part includes a substantial portion of Lake Victoria, shared with Kenya and Tanzania. Uganda is in the African Great Lakes region, lies within the Nile basin, and has a varied equatorial climate. , it has a population of 49.3 million, of whom 8.5 million live in the capital and largest city, Kampala. Uganda is named after the Buganda, Buganda kingdom, which encompasses a large portion of the south, including Kampala, and whose language Luganda is widely spoken; the official language is English. The region was populated by various ethnic groups, before Bantu and Nilotic groups arrived around 3,000 years ago. These groups established influential kingdoms such as the Empire of Kitara. The arrival of Arab trade ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ruzizi Plain
The Ruzizi Plain (French language, French: ''Plaine de la Ruzizi'') is a valley situated between the Mitumba Mountains, Mitumba mountain chain and the Ruzizi River. It serves as a natural border, separating the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from Burundi and Rwanda on the other side. The Ruzizi Plain is an integral part of the larger Albertine Rift, Western Rift Valley, which stretches across several African countries. It is traversed by the Ruzizi River, which flows from Lake Kivu through the plain and into Lake Tanganyika. It covers an area of 175,000 hectares divided between Burundi, Rwanda and the DRC. In Burundi, the plain extends to the northern sector of Imbo. It is bounded by parallels 2°36′ and 3°26′ Latitude, south latitude and by meridians 29°00′ and 29°26 Longitude, east longitude—an area of 1025 km2. The Congolese side is bounded to the north by the plain of Bugarama (Rwanda), to the east by the Imbo plain, plain of Imbo (Burundi), to the West by the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Albertine Rift
The Albertine Rift is the western branch of the East African Rift, covering parts of Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania. It extends from the northern end of Lake Albert to the southern end of Lake Tanganyika. The geographical term includes the valley and the surrounding mountains. Geology The Albertine Rift and the mountains are the result of tectonic movements that are gradually splitting the Somali Plate away from the rest of the African continent. The mountains surrounding the rift are composed of uplifted Pre-Cambrian basement rocks, overlaid in parts by recent volcanic rocks. Lakes and rivers The northern part of the rift is crossed by two large mountain ranges, the Rwenzori Mountains between Lake Albert and Lake Rutanzige (formerly Lake Edward) and the Virunga Mountains between Lake Rutanzige and Lake Kivu. The Virungas form a barrier between the Nile Basin to the north and east and the Congo Basin to the west and south. La ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Main Ethiopian Rift
Main may refer to: Geography *Main River (other), multiple rivers with the same name *Ma'in, an ancient kingdom in modern-day Yemen * Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province *Spanish Main, the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territories in the 16th and 17th centuries *'' The Main'', the diverse core running through Montreal, Quebec, Canada, also separating the Two Solitudes *Main (lunar crater), located near the north pole of the Moon * Main (Martian crater) People and organizations * Main (surname), a list of people with this family name *Main, alternate spelling for the Minaeans, an ancient people of modern-day Yemen * Main (band), a British ambient band formed in 1991 * Chas. T. Main, an American engineering and hydroelectric company founded in 1893 *MAIN (Mountain Area Information Network), former operator of WPVM-LP (MAIN-FM) in Asheville, North Carolina, U.S. * Main Deli Steak House ("The Main"), a smoked-meat delicatessen in Montreal, Quebec, Canada Ships ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gregory Rift
The Gregory Rift (''Ufa la Gregori'', in Swahili) is the eastern branch of the East African Rift fracture system. The rift is being caused by the separation of the Somali Plate from the Nubian Plate, driven by a thermal plume. Although the term is sometimes used in the narrow sense of the Kenyan Rift, the larger definition of the Gregory Rift is the set of faults and grabens extending southward from the Gulf of Aden through Ethiopia and Kenya into Northern Tanzania, passing over the local uplifts of the Ethiopian and Kenyan domes. Ancient fossils of early hominins, the ancestors of humans, have been found in the southern part of the Gregory Rift. Etymology The Gregory Rift is named in honour of the British geologist John Walter Gregory who explored the geology of the rift in 1892–93 and 1919.http://sp.lyellcollection.org/content/6/1/1.full.pdf Location The Gregory Rift lies within the Mozambique belt, often considered to be the remains of an orogenic system similar t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gulf Of Aden
The Gulf of Aden (; ) is a deepwater gulf of the Indian Ocean between Yemen to the north, the Arabian Sea to the east, Djibouti to the west, and the Guardafui Channel, the Socotra Archipelago, Puntland in Somalia and Somaliland to the south. In the northwest, it connects with the Red Sea through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, and it connects with the Arabian Sea to the east. To the west, it narrows into the Gulf of Tadjoura in Djibouti. The Aden Ridge lies along the middle of the gulf, and tectonic activity at the ridge is causing the gulf to widen by about per year. The ancient Greeks regarded the gulf as one of the most important parts of the " Erythraean Sea". It later came to be dominated by Muslims, as the area around the gulf converted to Islam. From the late 1960s onwards, there was an increased Soviet naval presence in the Gulf. The importance of the Gulf of Aden declined while the Suez Canal was closed, but it was revitalized when the canal was reopened in 1975, af ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aden Ridge
The Aden Ridge is a part of an active oblique rift system located in the Gulf of Aden, between Somalia and the Arabian Peninsula to the north. The rift system marks the divergent boundary between the Somali plate, Somali and Arabian plate, Arabian tectonic plates, extending from the Owen fracture zone, Owen transform fault in the Arabian Sea to the Afar triple junction or Afar Plume beneath the Gulf of Tadjoura in Djibouti. The Gulf of Aden is divided east to west into three distinct regions by large-scale discontinuities, the Socotra, Alula Fartak, and Shukra-El Sheik transform faults. Located in the central region, bounded by the Alula Fartak fault and Shukra-El Sheik fault, is the Aden spreading ridge. The Aden Ridge connects to the Sheba Ridge in the eastern region and to the Tadjoura Ridge in the western region. Due to oblique nature of the Aden Ridge, it is highly segmented. Along the ridge there are seven transform faults that offset it to the north. Initiation of rifting ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Sea Rift
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. The Red Sea Rift was formed by the divergence between the African and Arabian plates. The rift transitioned from a continental rift to an oceanic rift. Magnetic anomalies suggest that the spreading rate on either side of the Red Sea is about 1 cm/year. The African plate has a rotation rate of 0.9270 degrees/ Ma (million years), while the Arabian plate has a rotation rate of 1.1616 degrees/Ma. Spreading model A two-stage spreading model explains the tectonic evolution in this region. The first major rift motion was seen in the lower/middle Eocene, followed by major seafloor spreading in the late Eocene and early Oligocene. This was followed by a period of 30 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Afar Triple Junction
The Afar triple junction is a triple junction located along a divergent plate boundary dividing the Nubian, Somali, and Arabian plates. This area is considered a present-day example of continental rifting leading to seafloor spreading and producing an oceanic basin. Here, the Red Sea Rift meets the Aden Ridge and the East African Rift. The latter extends a total of from the Afar Triangle to Mozambique. The connecting three arms form a triple junction. The northernmost branching arm extends north through the Red Sea and into the Dead Sea, while the eastern arm extends through the Gulf of Aden and connects to the Mid-Indian Ocean ridge further to the east. Both of these rifting arms are below sea level and are similar to a mid-ocean ridge. The third rifting arm runs south extending around through the countries of Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi and, finally, Mozambique. This southern rifting arm is better known as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
