Great Rift Valley
Also known as Gregory Rift, East African Rift System, Rift Valley
continuous geographic trench
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The Great Rift Valley is a continuous geographic trench that stretches across the African continent. It matters because this massive geological formation has shaped the landscape, ecosystems, and human history of the regions it passes through.
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- Great Rift Valley, Tanzania.jpg
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- P12749
- Bronisławów
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Article
The Great Rift Valley (GRV) is a series of contiguous geographic depressions, approximately 6,500 kilometres (4,000 mi) in total length, which, in its original definition, runs from "the plains of northern Syria" in the north, through the Red Sea, to Mozambique in the south. The term remains in use in the fields of geography, zoology, ecology, paleontology and other disciplines, but it is now rarely used in geology where the term "Afro-Arabian Rift System" is preferred, which describes the series of geological structures that have given rise to the geographical feature. Great Rift Valley is also often used to refer to valleys, such as the Kenyan Rift Valley, within the East African Rift system.
The term was introduced by British geologist John Walter Gregory in 1896, following on from the work of Austrian geologist Eduard Suess, who first proposed the existence of a linked set of features extending from Syria to Mozambique.