The Great Rift Valley
The East African Rift Valley (EAR) is a developing divergent plate boundary in East Africa. Here the eastern portion of Africa, the Somalian plate, is pulling away from the rest of the continent, that comprises the Nubian plate. This extension has formed a rift valley, similar to the morphology of the one we see at the Vale of Eden albeit much younger! Crustal extension has formed a series of elongate lowland valleys bound by steeply dipping normal faults, separated by regions of comparatively high land. The Nubian and Somalian plates are also separating from the Arabian plate in the north, thus creating a ‘Y’ shaped rifting system. These plates intersect in the Afar region of Ethiopia at what is known as a ‘triple junction’.