Red Sea Plate Boundary Type

Triple Junction: The Red Bounding main/East Africa

The Afar region in Northern Ethiopia is the centre of a "Y" shaped rift system, where the continental lithosphere is being stretched and is splitting.

The Arabian Plate is rifting away from the African plate forth an active divergent ridge arrangement, to class the Reddish Body of water and Gulf of Aden. The rifting then extends southwards where the African Plate is itself condign stretched along the line of the East African Rift Valley and is splitting to form two new plates; the Nubian and Somalian Plates.

The signal in the Afar region where the boundaries of all three plates meet is called a Triple Junction.

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In time, as Nubian and Somalian plates movement further abroad from each other, the area betwixt them will abound thinner and drib below bounding main level. New ocean lithosphere may grade along the centre of the rift, producing a new narrow ocean basin with its ain mid sea ridge.

The orientation of the rifts, highlands and associated volcanic activity (such equally the volcano Erta Ale) suggests that the rifting of the continental lithosphere is the effect of a "hot spot", perchance formed by a rising mantle plume, beneath the Afar region where an upwelling mantle plume is forcing up the region. This causes the breakable lithosphere to stretch and fracture and is accompanied by large outpourings of lava chosen "flood basalts" which are typical of the Afar region.

triple junction