What are rifts? What kinds of eruptions would you expect there?
1 Answer
Rifts are places where divergent boundaries occur on continental plates. The eruptions are a flow of lava from the crack in the earth.
Explanation:
Most divergent boundaries occur at the mid ocean ridges. At the mid ocean ridges lava flows up and creates undersea mountains and islands.
Rifts are divergent boundaries that occur in valleys on continental plates. Rifts may create new divisions and oceans between continents. The Great Rift Valley of Africa is one example of these types of divergent boundaries.
The rift can create locations where lava flows out of the crack in the continental crust. The lava flows out of cracks sometimes explosively. These eruptions do not usually form volcanos like mountains. ( though in Iceland there have been volcanos formed)
The rift valleys are evidence of the explanatory value of the plate tectonic theory.
