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Tectonic plate begins to diverge
illustration of upper layers of the earth as it spreads and thins in a continental rift zone
Plate Rips Apart—As the plate stretches and thins, the underlying asthenosphere flows upward and expands like a hot-air balloon, lifting the region to higher elevations; The continental crust breaks along faults, forming long mountain ranges separated by rift valleys.
As a tectonic plate begins to diverge, it can rip a continent apart, forming a Continental Rift. National Park Service sites in the Basin and Range Province and Rio Grande Rift of the western United States reveal landscapes and continental rift processes in action. The Keweenawan Rift in the Lake Superior region formed more than a billion years ago as the North American continent unsuccessfully tried to rip apart.
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Modified from “Beauty from the Beast: Plate Tectonics and the Landscapes of the Pacific Northwest,” by Robert J. Lillie, Wells Creek Publishers, 92 pp., 2015, www.amazon.com/dp/1512211893.
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Geologic Resources Division, Code: GRD
09/26/2019
09/26/2019
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Wednesday, October 9, 2019 10:07:34 AM
Wednesday, October 9, 2019 10:07:34 AM
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Thursday, September 26, 2019 3:37:55 PM
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