The Colorado Plateau, with a smorgasbord of awe-inspiring rock formations and geological features, rises dramatically from the Rio Grande rift. The rift is a large, sunken region in the middle of the North American continental plate.
What tectonic plates formed the Rio Grande Rift?
In the western part of the continent, divergent plate boundary forces are beginning to rip the continent apart, forming the Basin and Range Province and its adjacent eastern arm, known as the Rio Grande Rift.
What formed the Rio Grande valley?
The Rio Grande Rift was formed by extension of Earth’s crust. Crustal thinning and normal faulting associated with the rifting process formed topographic depressions or “basins” that captured small creeks and streams, and gradually directed drainage along the rift axis.
What plates are involved in the Great rift valley?
The African plate, sometimes called the Nubian plate, carries most of the continent, while the smaller Somali plate carries Horn of Africa. The two major rift valley systems of the East African Rift are the Gregory Rift and the Western Rift.
What type of plate boundary is the African rift valley?
divergent plate boundary
The East African Rift Valley (EAR) is a developing divergent plate boundary in East Africa. Here the eastern portion of Africa, the Somalian plate, is pulling away from the rest of the continent, that comprises the Nubian plate.
What kind of plate boundary causes rift valleys like the East African rift and the Rio Grande Rift to form?
divergent boundary
Many rift valleys are part of “triple junctions,” a type of divergent boundary where three tectonic plates meet at about 120° angles. Two arms of the triple junction can split to form an entire ocean.
What type of plate boundary is in New Mexico?
Plate Tectonics
The Cascadia subduction zone is a region where two tectonic plates are colliding. The Juan de Fuca is a small oceanic plate. It is sliding under the North American plate. New Mexico is within the North American plate.
What type of margin is the Rio Grande Rift?
continental rift zone
The Rio Grande rift is a north-trending continental rift zone. It separates the Colorado Plateau in the west from the interior of the North American craton on the east. The rift extends from central Colorado in the north to the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, in the south.
What type of plate boundary is located along the Lake Baikal Rift Zone in Russia?
The Baikal Rift zone is a large high-latitude Cenozoic continental rift in Asia that formed along the plate boundary between the Siberian craton and a collage of microplates to the southeast.
Where is Rio Grande Rift?
Brief Description. The Rio Grande rift is a north-south trending zone of approximately east-west oriented extension that bisects the state of New Mexico. The extension is due to the Colorado Plateau pulling away from the High Plains, which causes the Earth’s crust to be stretched and thinned.
How are rift valleys formed by plate tectonics?
tectonic activity creates rift valleys
The valleys form when continental crust is pulling apart allowing the land to drop down between parallel faults. These valleys also form when oceanic plates are moving apart forming a divergent boundary.
Is a rift valley convergent or divergent?
divergent boundaries
Areas where plates are colliding form convergent boundaries, and areas where plates are expanding create divergent boundaries. Rift valleys are formed by divergent boundaries that involve continental plates.
What plate boundary is the San Andreas Fault?
The 1,200-kilometer-long San Andreas fault zone is part of the boundary between the Pacific and North American plates, and thus is known as a transform fault. It connects the East Pacific Rise in the Gulf of California with the junction of the Mendocino fracture zone and the Cascade subduction zone to the north.
How was African rift valley formed?
Geologists know that the Rift Valley was formed by violent subterranean forces that tore apart the earth’s crust. These forces caused huge chunks of the crust to sink between parallel fault lines and force up molten rock in volcanic eruptions.
What two plates are involved in the East African Rift?
On one side of the rift lies the Nubian (or African) tectonic plate, which includes the older continental crust of Africa. The Somalian plate—which is moving away in the other direction—lies to the other side and includes the Horn of Africa. (Note that the image is oriented so that north is to the lower left.)
What is convergent boundary?
When two plates come together, it is known as a convergent boundary. The impact of the colliding plates can cause the edges of one or both plates to buckle up into a mountain ranges or one of the plates may bend down into a deep seafloor trench.
How was the Rio Grande Rift formed?
The Rio Grande rift is a narrow, north-striking belt of en echelon (slightly overlapping, east or west stepping), elongated basins that bisects southern Colorado and New Mexico. The rift formed when the earth’s crust stretched and thinned during westerly directed extension, starting about 36–37 million years ago.
When was the Rio Grande Rift formed?
about 36 million years ago
The river’s course through southern Colorado and New Mexico is controlled by a geologic feature known as the Rio Grande rift, which formed when Earth’s crust stretched and thinned in an east-west direction starting about 36 million years ago (36 Ma).
What type of tectonic plate boundary created the Mid-Atlantic Ridge?
divergent plate boundary
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) is known as a mid-ocean ridge, an underwater mountain system formed by plate tectonics. It is the result of a divergent plate boundary that runs from 87° N – about 333 km (207 mi) south of the North Pole – to 54 °S, just north of the coast of Antarctica.
What plate boundary caused the Mexico earthquake?
Mexico rides atop the North American tectonic plate. Near its southern region, the North American plate collides with the Cocos plate, which is forced underground in what’s known as a subduction zone. This occurs because of the Cocos plate’s steady march to the northeast between 50 and 70 millimeters a year.
Is Mexico on a convergent plate boundary?
Mexico is located on one of Earth’s subduction zones, where the ocean floor of the Cocos tectonic plate is forcing its way down (“subducting”) beneath the continental edge of the North American plate.
