I was referring to the Great Rift Valley. Is it not thought of as a crater? Or is it a "fault"? I simply am trying to get some information on the GRV. We were told that it extended from Cairo to Mozambique. However, a friend tells me it is from Israel to Mozambique. So, I'm trying to find out from where, to where it runs, and how it came to be. Thanks for your quick response. Hope this gives you a better idea of what I'm looking for.

rocky Elaine R. Haimowitz

Dear Elaine,

That does make a little more sense - sorry I didn't understand it at first. I looked in an old African geology book, but it was hopeless - it had almost no diagrams. East African volcanoes extend from the Red Sea coast of Ethiopia southwestward across Ethiopia, where the line of volcanoes splits into 2 branches, one extending down into northeastern Tanzania and the other into northeastern Zaire and Rwanda. Neither of these lines of volcanoes makes it to Mozambique or Egypt or Israel. On a physiographic map of Africa it looks like an arm of the rift (Lake Nyasa) does indeed extend into Mozambique, but there isn't active volcanism associated with it.

Scott Rowland, University of Hawaii 

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