USGS CMG InfoBank: Rifts Split Continents

Source: Annenberg/CPB Resources - Earth Revealed - 6. Plate Dynamics

Keywords: Africa, continent, rift, "divergent plate", landscape, crust, "Saudi Arabia", "Red Sea", valley, "Gulf of Aden", ocean, "Atlantic Ocean", "plate tectonics"

Our transcription: A dramatic example of this can be seen on the African Continent.

In Eastern Africa a divergent boundary partially splits the landscape.

To the north, so much new crust has formed that Africa and Saudi Arabia, once joined together, have split apart with the Red Sea flooding the wide valley in between.

Rifting has also opened up the Gulf of Aden to the East.

In time these young seaways will grow larger, some day, perhaps, becoming as wide as the Atlantic today.