Rift lake

A rift lake is a lake formed as a result of subsidence related to movement on faults within a rift zone, an area of extensional tectonics in the continental crust. They are often found within rift valleys and may be very deep. Rift lakes may be bounded by large steep cliffs along the fault margins.

Examples

• Lake Baikal, in Siberia
• Lake Balaton, in Hungary
• The Dead Sea, on the border of Israel, Palestine and Jordan, a pull-apart basin, formed along the Dead Sea Transform.
• Ebi Lake in China at the Dzungarian Gate on the border with Kazakhstan
• Lake Elsinore, in the Elsinore Trough in Southern California
• Lake Hazar, in Turkey
• Lake Idaho, a Pliocene rift lake in Idaho
• Lake Khuvsgul, northern Mongolia
• Limagne, an infilled Paleogene rift lake in France
• Lake Lockatong, a rift lake of Triassic age, formed in the Newark Basin.
• Lake Malawi, part of East African Rift
• The Orcadian Basin, in northern Scotland, had rift lakes that formed during the Middle Devonian.
• Rift Valley lakes, eastern Africa
• Lake Tanganyika, part of Albertine Rift
• Lake Vostok, in Antarctica, may have formed in a rift setting
• Þingvallavatn, in Iceland

References

1. Rift Valley lakes
2. Rift valley
3. Rift
4. Great Rift Valley
5. African Great Lakes
6. Lake Baikal
7. Midcontinent Rift System
8. Great Rift Valley, Kenya
9. Lake Balaton
10. East African Rift
11. Lake Turkana
12. Lake Kivu
13. Great Rift Valley, Ethiopia
14. Ancient lake
15. Lake Natron
16. Rift Valley Province
17. Lake Tanganyika
18. Lake Malawi
19. Baikal Rift Zone
20. Albertine Rift