Afar Triangle

High school (ages 12+)
Geography

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Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/afar-triangle

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. How big is Afar Triangle?Approximately 70,000 square kilometers (27,000 square miles)
2. What is the lowest point?Lake Assal, Djibouti, at 155 meters (509 feet) below sea level
3. Why is the Afar Triangle called the cradle of humanity?Scientists have found many early human fossils there, like Lucy, which show how humans evolved. The fossils help us understand our ancestors' walking, brain size, and tool use.
4. How does the Afar Triangle make Lake Assal so low?The plates moving apart make the ground sink, creating a deep valley. Lake Assal sits 155 meters below sea level because of this sinking.

Continental Rifting: The process by which a continental plate is stretched and thinned, leading to the formation of rift valleys and potentially new ocean basins.
Paleoanthropology: The scientific study of the fossil evidence of the earliest humans and their ancestors.
Tectonic Plates: Enormous, rigid slabs of rock that make up the Earth's lithosphere and move relative to each other.
Hominin: The taxonomic tribe Hominini, which includes humans and their extinct bipedal ancestors after the split from the chimpanzee lineage.