The Great Rift Valley system is one of the most significant land features on Earth extending from the Jordan River in southwestern Asia southwards through East Africa to Mozambique. The rift valley system is about 6400km long and between 48km to 64km wide. Not only is this feature a geographical landmark but also a place of great biodiversity, human evolution, and geological intrigue.
This rift valley was formed as a result of movement of large slabs of rocks known as tectonic plates that divided the Earth’s crust by a process known as rifting. These tectonic plates include the African plates, Antarctic plates, Eurasian plates, Indo-Australian plates, North America plates, Pacific plates, and the South American plates which have since then been moving for 3.4 billion years.
The Great Rift Valley runs across a number of countries and these include; Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Zambia, and Mozambique. These rift valley areas are characterized with vegetation cover that ranges from savanna grasslands and woodlands, mountain forests, shrubs, and fresh water lakes.
The Great Rift Valley is divided into two parts that is, the Eastern rift valley and the western rift valley.
The East African Rift Valley is the main branch of the Great Rift Valley hence its most commonly referred to as the Great Rift Valley. Although these names can be used interchangeably, in some cases they refer to slightly different aspects of the same geological feature.
Eastern Rift valley
This Eastern rift valley is the most extensive rift on the earth’s surface. It extends along the entire length of the rift valley system starting from the Jordan River in the north, the Dead Sea, and the Gulf of Aqaba. It continues southwards along the Red sea into the Ethiopian Denakil plain then to Lake Turkana, Lake Naivasha, and Lake Magadi and then southward through the Shire river valley and Mozambique plains to the coast of the Indian ocean near Beira in Mozambique. In Tanzania, the eastern rim of the rift valley is less prominent since it is much eroded.
The Eastern Rift valley is deeper and narrower than the western rift valley. This branch of the rift valley is characterized by a number of Volcanoes such as mt. Kilimanjaro which is the highest free standing mountain in the world, and Mount Kenya. These mountains came into existence as a result of extensive volcanism of parts along the rift valley length. It is also home to numerous iconic national parks and conservation areas such as Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Masai Mara National Reserve, Queen Elizabeth National Park, Virunga National Park, Rwenzori mountains national park, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Amboseli National Park, among others.
Western Rift valley
The western rift valley, also known as the Albertine rift valley is the branch of the rift valley system that extends northwards from the northern end of Lake Malawi forming an arc that curves along Lake Rukwa, Lake Tanganyika, Lake Kivu, Lake Edward, and Lake Albert. This branch of the rift valley covers Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania.
It is characterized by some of the deepest lakes in the world such as Lake Tanganyika, and Lake Malawi and the northern part is crossed by the large Rwenzori ranges and the Virunga Mountains.
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