graben

graben, elongate fault blocks of the Earth’s crust that have been raised and lowered, respectively, relative to their surrounding areas as a direct effect of faulting. Horsts and grabens may range in size from blocks a few centimetres wide to tens of kilometres wide; the…

…of tectonic depression is “graben,” the German word for “ditch” or “trough.”

…each other is called a graben. A block that has been relatively uplifted between two normal faults that dip away from each other is called a horst. A tilted block that lies between two normal faults dipping in the same direction is a tilted fault block.

…basins formed by complexes of grabens (downdropped faulted blocks). These lakes are among the oldest of modern lakes, as are other graben lakes, particularly those within the East African Rift System, which extends through the East African lake system and includes the Red Sea (see also tectonic landforms: Rift valleys).

…depressions bounded by faults (grabens). Where grabens cross ridges, they usually cut through them, implying that the grabens formed later than the ridges.

…Rift Valley forms a spectacular graben (a massive tectonic trough) running right down the middle of the country from the northern frontier with Eritrea to the southern border with Kenya.

…many of them formed when grabens (large areas that dropped along fault lines) filled with water. Lake Dian in Kunming and Lake Er in Dali are among those renowned for their great beauty.