Earth Science: Geology, the Environment, and the Universe

Chapter 17: Plate Tectonics

Problem of the Week

Splitting At the Seams

Without a subduction zone to absorb or destroy the crust that is being created, there are several possibilities that students may suggest:

  • possible mountain building on the continent

  • eventually a subduction zone might form at the western boundary of the African continent with the oceanic part of the crust subducting beneath the continental crust

  • some type of faulting within the continent resulting in additional earthquake and volcanic activity along the rift valley

Resources:

  1. This Dynamic Earth: The story of plate tectonics (1996). USGS: U.S. Government Printing Office. Washington, DC.

  2. The Great Rift Valley, Jordan to Mozambique

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