Definition of rift valley in US English:
rift valley
nounˈrif(t) ˌvalēˈrɪf(t) ˌvæli
A large elongated depression with steep walls formed by the downward displacement of a block of the earth's surface between nearly parallel faults or fault systems.
Example sentencesExamples
- Late in the Cenozoic, the main rift valley running through Ethiopia, Kenya, and points south, became the home of several species of large, noisy, and nearly hairless apes.
- Uganda has five prospective oil exploring areas along the western rift valley (the Albertine Grabe) covering an total area of nearly 22,000 square kilometers.
- Instead of being swallowed up, as in a typical rift valley, the sediments are spread widely over the basin or anywhere that is slightly lower than the uplifted area.
- The most important discussion of volcanic activity focuses on the Owens Valley, which is in fact an active rift valley.
- The area we had surveyed was in the rift valley that lies along the center of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a mile-high undersea volcanic mountain range that traverses the Atlantic from north to south.