EPSC 201 Lecture 5: UNDERSTANDING PLANET EARTH 5
29 Jan 2016
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Document Summary
The birth of a divergent margin or continental rifting. This process led to the breakup of pangaea. Rifting arises from tensional forces that break the crust along a complex jumble of normal faults: uplift of a broad area. Crust heated and expanded (example: colorado plateau: normal faults. Rift valleys forms (example: african rift valley, rio grande rift: oceanic crust and new ocean forms. Erosion reduces height of flanking: crust, thinned by erosion, cools, contracts and sinks beneath the sea continents (example: red sea) (example: atlantic ocean) Western u. s basin and range province is a rift! Rifting tilted blocks of crust to form mountains. Sediment eroded from blocks, filling adjacent basin. Rifting has progressed to mid-ocean ridge formation. Forms a long, thin ocean basin with young oceanic crust. The arabian plate is rifting from the african plate. Rifting has progressed to sea-floor spreading in 1) the red sea and 2) the. Stretching continues along the east african rift.
