page_title: Afar Triple Junction
section_title: Red Sea Rift
hierarchical_section_title: Afar Triple Junction / Doming and rifting / Red Sea Rift
caption_attribution_description: English: View along the active Manda-Hararo rift, towards Dabbahu volcano, Afar, Ethiopia
context_page_description: The Afar Triple Junction is located along a divergent plate boundary dividing the Nubian, Somali, and Arabian plates. This area is considered a present-day example of continental rifting leading to seafloor spreading and producing an oceanic basin. Here, the Red Sea Rift meets the Aden Ridge and the East African Rift. It extends a total of 6,500 kilometers in three arms from the Afar Triangle to Mozambique.
  The connecting three arms form a triple junction. The northern most branching arm extends North through the Red Sea and into the Dead Sea, while the eastern arm extends through the Gulf of Aden and connects to the Mid-Indian Ocean ridge further to the east. Both of these rifting arms are below sea level and are similar to a mid-ocean ridge.
  The third rifting arm runs south extending around 4,000 kilometres through the countries of Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi and, finally, Mozambique. This southern rifting arm is better known as the East African Rift or the East African Rift System, when it includes the Afar Triangle.
context_section_description: The Red Sea Rift is between the African (or Nubian) and Arabian Plates. The rift runs along the length of the Red Sea, starting from the Dead Sea to the Afar triple junction.  Within the rift, in the Red Sea, there are many volcanoes, including the Jabal al-Tair. The extension rate for this rift varies from about 7 to 17 millimetres per year (0.28 to 0.67 in/year).
caption: Manda-Hararo rift in the Afar region of Ethiopia with Dabbahu Volcano in the background
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