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  • Continental Plate Separation: Spazio Clil

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    Michele Lombardi
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    Continental rifting occurs when tectonic plates separate within continents, usually over a wider area than oceanic spreading centers. Early rifting stages like the East African Rift form multiple rift valleys with volcanic activity and earthquakes. The Red Sea and Gulf of California are further along, with new seafloor spreading and flooded rift valleys. Sometimes continental rifting may slow or stop before the continent fully splits apart. The future of the East African Rift and whether it will form a new ocean basin or slow down like the weakly active Rhine Valley rift is unknown.

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    CLIL_Elementi_13-1

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    Continental rifting occurs when tectonic plates separate within continents, usually over a wider area than oceanic spreading centers. Early rifting stages like the East African Rift form multiple rift valleys with volcanic activity and earthquakes. The Red Sea and Gulf of California are further along, with new seafloor spreading and flooded rift valleys. Sometimes continental rifting may slow or stop before the continent fully splits apart. The future of the East African Rift and whether it will form a new ocean basin or slow down like the weakly active Rhine Valley rift is unknown.

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    7 views1 page

    Continental Plate Separation: Spazio Clil

    Uploaded by

    Michele Lombardi
    Continental rifting occurs when tectonic plates separate within continents, usually over a wider area than oceanic spreading centers. Early rifting stages like the East African Rift form multiple rift valleys with volcanic activity and earthquakes. The Red Sea and Gulf of California are further along, with new seafloor spreading and flooded rift valleys. Sometimes continental rifting may slow or stop before the continent fully splits apart. The future of the East African Rift and whether it will form a new ocean basin or slow down like the weakly active Rhine Valley rift is unknown.

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    of 1

    SPAZIO CLIL

    Continental plate separation

    ivergent boundaries within the ocean basins


    are narrow rifts that approximate the ideal
    ization of plate tectonics. Divergence within the
    continents is usually more complicated and dis
    tributed over a wider area.
    Early stages of plate separation, such as the
    Great Rift Valley of East Africa (see figure 1), can
    be found on some continents. These divergent
    boundaries are characterized by rift valleys, vol
    canic activity, and earthquakes distributed over
    a wider zone than oceanic spreading centers.
    The Red Sea and the Gulf of California are rifts
    that are further along in the spreading process.
    In these cases, the continents have separated
    enough for new seafloor to form along the spread

    ing axis, and the rift valleys have been flooded


    by the ocean. Sometimes continental rifting may
    slow down or stop be
    fore the continent splits
    apart and a new ocean basin opens.
    The Rhine Valley (see figure 2) along the bor
    der of Germany and France is a weakly active
    continental rift that may be this type of failed
    spreading center. Will the East African Rift con
    tinue to open up, causing the Somali Subplate to
    split away from Africa completely and form a new
    ocean basin, as happened between Africa and the
    island of Madagascar? Or will the spreading slow
    down and eventually stop, as appears to be hap
    pening in western Europe? Geologists dont know
    the answers.

    Figure 1 Early stages of rifting and plate separation now occurring within eastern Africa,
    where multiple rift valleys with their associated faulting, volcanism, and earthquakes are
    distributed over a wider zone.

    Figure 2 The Rhine Valley forms part of the


    European Cenozoic Rift System, which extends across central Europe. The Upper Rhine
    Graben formed during the Oligocene as a response to the evolution of the Alps to the
    south and remains active to the present day.
    It is a weakly active continental rift that may
    be a type of failed spreading center.

    Fantini, Monesi, Piazzini - Elementi

    di Scienze della Terra Italo Bovolenta editore - 2013

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