Hello again! I've made my way to Saudi Arabia, and have just returned from a boat tour around the eastern coast of the Red Sea. A divine body of water, situated between Africa and Asia, at 22˚N 38˚E, it holds more than 1,200 species of fish.
(Both images are from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Sea)
Anyways, moving on to the science. We have reached our first boundary! Whoo hoo! Get excited people. The Red Sea is an effect of the "divergent plate" boundary. How so? Well divergent plate boundaries are when two plates are moving away from one another. You see, the Red Sea was formed when Arabia split from Africa due to the Red Sea Rift. Valley rifts are a common result of divergent plate boundaries. This rift is a spreading center between the two plates. Still confused? Okay, so when the plates pull apart, central blocks slide downwards on either side of the rift. In the beginning process, streams and rivers will flow into the sinking valley to form a long linear shaped lake (note the shape of the Red Sea... looks long and linear to me...) When the rift grows deeper it drops below sea level permitting ocean waters to flow in, producing a sea within the rift. Rifts can grow deeper and wider and ocean basins can be produced. Divergent boundaries, in this case, created a new sea-floor and a widening ocean basin we all know as the Red Sea. (See diagram below)
Geologists, including myself, predict that in the future (we're talking super far ahead) that the Red Sea could become an ocean. For now it's just an Atlantic wannabe, (the same thing happened with the Atlantic Ocean)
but we'll see or should I see the future generations will see....
But for now it's just a beautiful tropical sea.... Off to colder places, yet again, for our second boundary stop!
I really like all of the pictures, it helps me understand the blog so much better!
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