tectonic basins and rift valleys

tectonic basins and rift valleys, landforms characterized by relatively steep, mountainous sides and flat floors. The steep sides are created by displacement on faults such that the valley floor moves down relative to the surrounding margins, or, conversely, the margins move up relative to the floor. Differences in the elevations of valley floors and surrounding mountains or plateaus range from only several hundred metres to more than 2,000 metres in major rift valleys. The widths of tectonic valleys and basins vary from as little as 10 kilometres to more than 100 kilometres. Their lengths typically are hundreds of kilometres, but range from a few tens to thousands of kilometres.

The vast majority of tectonic basins and valleys is produced by an extension of the Earth’s crust and the subsequent dropping of a block of crust into the space created by the divergence of large crustal blocks or lithospheric plates. The extension of the brittle crust causes it to fracture, and as the adjoining crustal blocks or plates move apart, a smaller block slides down into the resulting gap. The down-dropping of this block between the surrounding fault blocks, which commonly rise during an episode of crustal extension, creates a rift valley or tectonic basin. The geologic term for this type of tectonic depression is “graben,” the German word for “ditch” or “trough.”

Tectonic depressions also can be produced by horizontal compression of the crust—i.e., by crustal shortening. Two types of compressional tectonic valleys and basins can be recognized: ramp valleys and foreland basins. A ramp valley is analogous to a rift valley but is formed by the margins of the valley being pushed over its floor. A foreland basin, on the other hand, results from a gentle downward bending or flexing of the entire lithosphere.

Rift valleys

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In the simplest case, a rift valley forms when a block of crust, tens of kilometres wide and hundreds of kilometres long, drops down between two diverging lithospheric plates, much as the keystone in an arch will fall if the walls of the arch move apart. This process is responsible for the relatively symmetrical cross sections of most parts of the East African Rift System, where the valley floor lies 1,000 metres or more below the higher plateaus of Ethiopia and Kenya. In some places, the sides of the rift valley make single, steep walls as high as 1,000 metres. In others, the edges of the valleys consist of steps or tiers with each small inner block dropping with respect to its neighbouring outer block. Thus the deepest part of the rift valley is not always at its centre.

Volcanoes mark the axes of some, but by no means all, rift valleys. Where the lithospheric plates separate and the crust is thinned, the underlying parts of the lithosphere in the mantle also must diverge, allowing hot material from the asthenosphere to rise to shallow depths. Some such material from the asthenosphere has erupted at volcanoes within the eastern rift of the East African Rift System in Ethiopia and Kenya and within a small section of the western rift in Congo (Kinshasa). Most of the western rift, which extends from Uganda through Lake Tanganyika and Lake Nyasa (Malaŵi), however, has no volcanoes.

Many rift valleys are asymmetrical with one steep wall and one gentle side. The steep wall is formed by slip on one or two major faults; however, unlike the simple grabens described above, no major fault bounds the other side of the rift valley. Instead, the other side is formed by a flexing of the lithosphere and by a tilting of the surface. Small faults are common, but over all there is a relatively gentle slope into the rift valley. Death Valley, in California, has a very steep eastern margin and a gentler western edge. The floor of Death Valley is moving down along a fault along its eastern margin and is rotating about an axis west of the valley. Thus, the most rapid sinking is along the valley’s eastern edge, where the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere, Badwater, lies 86 metres below sea level. Similarly, the Baikal Rift in Siberia, which contains the deepest lake in the world, Lake Baikal, has a very steep northwestern edge and a gentler southeastern margin.

Within some rift valleys are narrow ridges (10 to 20 kilometres wide) that are bounded by steep sides, separating the ridges from neighbouring parts of the valleys. A ridge of this kind is called a horst, a block of crust bounded by faults such that the flanks of the range have dropped with respect to it. A horst is the opposite of a graben. The third highest mountain in Africa, Margherita Peak of the Ruwenzori Range (located along the border of Uganda and Congo) marks the highest point on a horst within the western rift of the East African Rift System.

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Horsts can be found in most rift valleys, but unlike the Ruwenzori, they rarely dominate the landscape. The floors of most rift valleys have dropped relative to the surrounding landscape, but the tops of horsts rarely stand higher than the surface outside the valleys. Thus most horsts are merely blocks that have remained at nearly the same height as the unbroken crust outside of the rift valleys. Most horsts exist because rift valleys formed adjacent to them, not because they were elevated.

Some rift valleys, such as the East African Rift Valley in Ethiopia and Kenya, have formed over large domes. Upwelling of hot material within the underlying asthenosphere not only pushes the overlying lithosphere up but heats it as well, causing it to expand. To some extent the upward bulging of the lithosphere causes it to stretch, and this stretching manifests itself as a rift valley. Rift valleys that have formed in this way are commonly associated with extensive volcanism.

Certain rift valleys seem to be created by distant forces acting upon the lithosphere. These valleys cannot be associated with large domes, and in general volcanism is rare or absent. The Baikal Rift, for example, seems to be associated with the same forces that are pushing India into the rest of Eurasia. Moreover, though the elevations of the flanks are high (more than 3,000 metres in some places), the overall elevation decreases rapidly to only a couple of hundred metres at distances of just 50 to 100 kilometres northwest of Lake Baikal. Thus, a broad dome is not present.