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How did faulting form the basins of Lake Baikal and Lake Tanganyika?
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Lake Ann in North Cascades National Park, Washington, U.S., viewed from the park's Maple Loop Trail. The North Cascades National Park is a large wilderness area that preserves majestic mountain scenery, snowfields, glaciers, and other unique natural features.
Lake Baikal and Lake Tanganyika occupy basins formed by complexes of grabens, which are downdropped blocks of the Earth's crust created by faulting.1
These basins are associated with rift valleysāelongated troughs formed by the subsidence of crustal segments between normal faults. In these zones, the rock on the upper side of a fault plane is displaced downward relative to the rock below, creating a depression that can fill with water.23
- Lake Baikal: Located in Russia, it lies within the Baikal Rift Valley, a deep structural hollow surrounded by mountains. It is the oldest existing freshwater lake on Earth.24
- Lake Tanganyika: Situated in eastern Africa, it occupies the southern end of the Western Rift Valley, which is part of the broader East African Rift System. This system has been forming for approximately 30 million years as tectonic plates separate.562