Hello, I am doing a presentation on the role and importance of rifts and ridges in the creation of continents.

Question

I am having a really hard time telling the difference between the two! I have researched them both and find them very similar...help!

Thanks

Answer 1

A rift is a depression where two plates pulled apart, like stretching silly putty and the putty gets thinner, forming a depression. The Mississippi Valley is a rift feature.
Now if the rift gets thin enough, magma from the Earth's core boils out, making a new crust, which is generally higher than the surrounding land: this is a ridge.
Ridges come from rifts, but not all rifts form ridges.

Answer 2

OOOHH ok that's what I thought! But I was not sure because lots of textbooks use different terminology and it got confusing.

So ridges are the result of rifting process?

Answer 3

ridges result in some of the rifting processes.

Answer 4

thanks!