Plate Tectonics: A Look at the African Plate

Introduction

The plate tectonic plays an important role in understanding many of the geological aspects and observations and it allows scientists to prevent disasters such as earthquakes and volcanoes. The Africa plate is an interested plate because it bounded with many difference major plates. This report will summery the general setting of the Africa plate with highlighting the most interested geological features in the first part. This including the type of plate boundaries and a brief history of the Africa plate. While the second part will focus on the east African rift and its widely debate initial and current mechanism processes.

General Tectonic setting of Africa

The African plate is bounded by different types of plate boundaries. These plates are Divergent boundary in which the plate move away from each other in opposite direction and it create earthquake and volcanic activity. The second type is the Convergent boundary, in this type the plates move toward each other causing one plate to subduct below the other. And the third type is the Transform boundary. Plates slide past one another and usually earthquakes are associated with it (Smith and Pun 2009). The North and South American plates bounded the African plate from the west which formed the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The plate boundaries here is mostly divergent with some transform boundaries. The African plate is spreading away from the North American plate at 28 mmyr-1 though the rate is decreasing toward the north and from the South American plate at 30 mmyr-1. While in the east the African plate is divergently bounded by the Arabian and Indian plates and they moving at average rate of 20mmyr-1. From the north, the Eurasian plate bounded the African plate; here the...

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