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What are some areas on Earth where continental rifting is occurring today?

.List several areas on Earth where continental rifting is occurring today. Eventually, what will happen to these areas as rifting continues? Finally, how is continental rifting similar to seafloor spreading and how is it different?

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1. Rifting is a fault line where two continental plates are sliding past each other. This is typical in the Great Rift Valley of NE Africa and the San Andreas Fault of California. Spreading is what happens in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where the continental plates are spreading away from each other because of tectonic upswelling along the rift line. The third major feature would be subduction where one plate dives under another. This is what happens in oceanic trenches, such as the Marianas Trench off of the Philipines and the Andean Trench off of South America. In such cases, you usually see large mountains on the mainland side of the trench.
2. Rifting refers to diverging lithospheric plates. This most often happens at seafloor spreading ridges within oceanic lithosphere. Places where continental lithosphere is currently being rifted open include the following: 1. East African Rift Zone 2. Death Valley, CA 3. Salton Trough of Southern California. The San Andreas Fault does not facilitate continental rifting. It is a transform fault system. Subduction zones are not rift zones, either. Rifting means the lithosphere is splitting open and widening the gap.