What formed the Great Rift Valley?

The Great Rift Valley is a large geological fracture whose total extension is 4830 kilometers in a north-south direction. Although this valley is generally spoken of to refer only to its African part, from Djibouti to Mozambique, the fact is that the Red Sea and the Jordan River valley are also part of it. It began to form in southeastern Africa (where it is wider) about 30 million years ago and continues to grow today, both in width and length, expansion that will eventually become an ocean basin (in fact, already it is in the Red Sea area thanks to its communication with the Indian Ocean).

Its genesis was produced by the separation of tectonic plates as the Earth's crust expands due to the divergent processes along the tectonic valley's own rift (divergent edge). The process was inverse to the collision of tectonic plates that form mountain ranges such as the Himalayas or the Alps. On the contrary, in the separation of plates a long trench with slopes of great slope is formed, in addition the central rocky zone fragments and collapses periodically, creating normal faults in which the blocks of rock exert a vertical sliding. In many places these movements form large steps where the central blocks sink forming a tectonic pit or graben. Throughout the Rift Valley, the earth's crust is heated by melted magma that rises to the surface through fissures and volcanic cones.