Back خسف البحر الأحمر Arabic Rudomořský rift Czech בקע ים המלח HE Rift del Mar Rosso Italian Ryft Morza Czerwonego Polish Рифт Красного моря Russian Crvenomorski rift Serbo-Croatian Рифт Црвеног мора Serbian Рифт Червоного моря Ukrainian Lũng hẹp Biển Đỏ Vietnamese

Red Sea Rift

Red Sea Rift between the African (Nubian) Plate and the Arabian plate

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.[1] 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.[2]

  1. ^ McGuire, A. V.; Bohannon, R. G. (1989). "Timing of mantle upwelling: Evidence for a passive origin for the Red Sea rift". Journal of Geophysical Research. 94 (B2): 1677–1682. doi:10.1029/jb094ib02p01677.
  2. ^ Mckenzie, D. P.; Davies, D.; Molnar, P. (1970). "Plate Tectonics of the Red Sea and East Africa". Nature. 226 (5242): 243–248. doi:10.1038/226243a0.

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