Syllabus Section: Geography (GS Paper I)

Importance: UPSC Prelims

Why in News?

A report has found that the water levels of lakes in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley increased significantly, due to climate change, human activities and an active tectonic belt.

About:

• Rift Valley Lakes are a series of lakes in the East African Rift valley that runs through eastern Africa from Ethiopia in the north to Malawi in the south.
• These include the African Great Lakes (Victoria, Tanganyika and Malawi) as well as Turkana, Albert, Edward, Kivu and other lakes.
• Lake Victoria is the second largest freshwater lake in the world after Lake Superior in the US.
• Lake Taganayika is the longest lake in the world.
• Rift Valley lakes are well known for the evolution of at least 800 cichlid fish species that live in their waters.
• Threats - Deforestation, pollution from agricultural and industrial activities, run-off from urban areas and overfishing threaten the health of many of the lakes and their water basins.

Rift Valley

• A rift valley is a lowland region that forms where Earth’s tectonic plates move apart, or rift.
• Rift valleys are found both on land and at the bottom of the ocean, where they are created by the process of seafloor spreading.
• Rift valleys differ from river valleys and glacial valleys in that they are created by tectonic activity and not the process of erosion.

Source: Down To Earth