1. The Great African Rift
Valley
Done By: Tan Yu Xiang 3O3
Lucas Tang 3O3
Jordan Leong 3O3
Weng Khin 3O3
Chan Chia Ler 3P3
Kah Xuan 3P3

2. Content
• Introduction
• Social Impacts
• Environmental Impacts
• Economical Impacts
• Political Impacts
• Earthquakes
• Reflection
• Bibilography

4. • It is a fracture in the Earth’s surface that
widens over time

5. Introduction
• Located in Eastern Africa
• Formed from a divergent plate boundary between the
African Plate and the Arabian Plate
• The Great Rift Valley was split at some point into
Western and Eastern Rift
• Mountains: Ruwenzori Range, Mount Kenya and Mount
Margherita
• Major Lakes: Lake Nyssa, Lake Turkana, Lake Tanganyika
• About 30 volcanos located on the Valley, e.g. Mount
Kilimanjaro
• Formed 35 million years ago
• 3600 miles in length

6. Social Impacts
• Created cultural events such as Rabai, Swahili
an Lamu Cultural Festivals
• In the Rift valley Province, there are festicals
like Baringo and Dorobo Cultural festivals
• The Great Ruft Valley is filled with wildlife and
makes it a good tourist attraction. Thus, the
area may get affected by these tourists.

7. Environmental Impacts
• Resulted in inadequate water production (important as
Over 90% of the rural population living in Ethiopia have
no access to potable water)
• Resulted in weak institutional capacity to operate and
maintain the water supply and sanitation facilities
• Rapidly growing population led to an increased claim
on natural resources
• The agricultural area has increased considerably, while
changing agricultural practices have increased further
the pressure on the natural resources.

8. Environmental Impacts
• Irrigation, fertilizers and agrochemicals have
been introduced in the last years.
• Water abstraction is often being done without
the basic understanding of the complex
hydrological and hydrogeological system and
the fragile nature of the rift ecosystem
• Lakes with high concentration of salt, causing
fish to thrive there and attracting many birds.
For example, Lake Turkana (below)

9. Economical Impacts
• Used as a tourist attraction to earn money
• Known to be most scenic in Kenya
• Rift Valley Railways--- Kenya-Uganda railway
which is 930km long. It was the only means of
modern transport across the rift valley and it was
economically viable as it could be used to
transport tourists and can improve trade among
Kenya and Uganda. However, it is difficult to
maintain and there are numerous safety issues. It
can also be inefficient.
• Oil exploration in Congo on the hunch of the
availability of oil near the great lakes.

10. Political Impacts
• Rift Valley has one of the highest population
densities in Africa due to the abundance of
volcanoes
• Portrayed as a disaster zone as the temporal
borders of Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC), Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi are around
the valley’s surface
• Dynamic and verdant geography led to
unsustainable human demographics and land
scarcity

11. Earthquakes
• February 2008: Two strong earthquakes occured in
Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. At
least 40 people were killed and 400 injured. The larger
earthquake had a magnitude of six.
• December 2005: A strong earthquake hit East Africa.
The earthquake of magnitude 6.8 was centered under
Lake Tanganyika, and the impact was felt as far as 975
kilometers from the epicenter
• January 2011: A 4.8 magnitude earthquake hit a region
of the Great Rift Valley near Lake Albert in Uganda
• June 2012: A swarm of earthquakes hit the Eritrea
region near Ethiopia along the Great Rift Valley at a
depth of 10 km. The stongest was of magnitude 5.7.

12. Weng Khin’s Reflections
I found this project very interesting and meaningful as I
learned more about the Great African Rift as well as the
benefits it brings to the people and animals living around
it. This project also allow me to know more about my
friends. All in all, I enjoyed doing this project and I hope
there would be more of such projects.

13. Jordan’s Reflections
I felt that this project was very purposeful as it gives us
specific case studies that enable us to understand the
concepts we learnt in class and see them in action in real
life. It is really an eye opener as before the project, I had
no idea what was the African Rift Valley and after
completing the project, I was able to link the separation of
continental plates learnt in class and understand how it
looks like in real life. It has also many impacts on the
environment that I learnt in the process too. I hope to be
able to do more of such projects to widen my general
knowledge and at the same time facilitate my learning
journey of Geography.

14. Kah Xuan’s Reflections
Before the project, I did not even know what the Great
African Rift Valley was. However, after the
researches, since I was in charge of researching on the
environmental impact, I learnt that the formation of such
rift valleys can actually have environmental impact apart
from a changes landform around that area. One
important thing that I have learnt is that human activities
play apart in the environmental impacts around the
landform. Such impacts may have both positive and
negative impact. Positive impacts may be the increase in
agriculture area while negative impacts may be the
inability to sustain sanitation facilities.

15. Yu Xiang’s Reflections
After doing this project, I learned a lot about The Great
African Rift Valley. From before, when I knew nothing
about Great African Rift Valley before, to now, where I
learned about how it is formed and what sorts of impact
it has. I also learned about other stuffs such as, the
geographical landforms around The Great African Rift
Valley. Some of the impacts, such as political impact and
social impact, I did not even know that there were such
impacts caused by this landform that resulted from the
divergence of 2 plates. In conclusion, I learned a lot from
this project and I enjoyed this project.

16. Bibliography
• http://www.slideshare.net/guestc9df9b4/africa-the-
great-rift-valley
• http://geology.com/articles/east-africa-rift.shtml
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Rift_Valley_%28ge
ographical_concept%29#Africa
• http://www.slideshare.net/guest9b5e2f/the-great-rift-
valley-1555735
• http://www.greendiary.com/entry/impending-
earthquake-looms-large-over-lebanon/
• http://grecdh.upc.edu/docencia/treballs-
dirigits/etseccpb/1006_eraventos_governanca_aigua_c
rv

17. Bibliography
• ftp://ftp.itc.nl/pub/naivasha/odada2003.pdf
• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/15
77585/At-least-40-die-in-Great-Rift-
earthquake.html
• http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=74959
• http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/201
1/01/17/4-8-earthquake-in-africans-rift-valley-
great-lakes/
• http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/201
1/06/12/rift-valley-quake-5-0-magnitude-
earthquake-strikes-ethiopia-region/