Graben ( German: Graben - ditch, ditch) - dislocation , a piece of the earth's crust , lowered relative to the surrounding area along steep or vertical tectonic faults .
The length of the grabens reaches hundreds of kilometers with a width of tens and hundreds of kilometers. Grabens are usually formed in zones of extension of the earth's crust ( rift zones).
The greatest graben system in East Africa is located along the lakes Victoria , Nyasa , and Tanganyika . The largest freshwater lake in the world - Baikal , is also located in the graben, known as the Barguzinsky Depression .
The largest grabens in the solar system are the Mariner valleys on Mars , formed as a result of tectonic processes in the volcanic province of Farsida .
See also
- Horst
Literature
- Graben // Great Soviet Encyclopedia : [in 30 vol.] / Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov . - 3rd ed. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978.
- Graben // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.