A Rift valley is a lowland region that forms where Earth’s tectonic plates move apart.
They can be found on land or on the bottom of the ocean. They are created by seafloor spreading, a process in which tectonic plated spread apart from each other.
The Great Rift Valley is a continuous geographic trench, 6,000 kilometers in length, that runs from Lebanon's Beqaa Valley in Asia to Mozambique in South Eastern Africa.
The floors of rift valleys are relatively flat
Many of the world's largest lakes are located in rift valleys.
Valles Marineris on Mars is believed by planetary geologists to be a large rift valley or system.
On Earth, rifts can occur at all elevations, from the sea floor to plateaus and mountain ranges in continental crust or in oceanic crust.
