East Africa's Great Rift Valley Article Review

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Article weaknesses: On page two the authors write, "What else can we say about the Ethiopian and Kenya Rifts? Quite a lot actually." This is very sophomoric narrative for scientists to be putting forth. Using a cliche like that tends to lessen the value of the science. It takes the authors quite a long time to get to one of the most interesting points of the article. That is, the rifting is important in terms of understanding human evolution. It seems like that fact could have been placed at or near the front of the article. There are many "hominid fossil finds" in the rift, which means that the evolution of humans can be traced by scientists because the evolution of the rift itself is giving clues to human evolution.

The weakness here is because the authors waited until the last page to present something about humans that is far more interesting than just information about tectonic plates and how crumbling plates may be creating newer plates. There are no known factual errors, but it would have been more compelling to begin the article with how a rifting situation teaches science about human evolution.

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And they way they explain the link to evolution is clumsy. Because the rift was there centuries ago, they write on page 3, it "…may have made East Africa more sensitive to climate changes which lead to many alternation between wet and air periods" (Wood, p. 3). The "environmental pressure" may have been the "drive needed for our ancestors to become bipedal and more brainy as they attempted to adapt to these shifting climates," Wood writes (3). This is not very clear or understandable, but in the conclusion they achieve a bit more clarity. Because the local climate was altered, they explain in the conclusion, that may have "…in turn caused our ancestors to develop the skills necessary to walk upright, develop culture and ponder how such a rift came to be" (Wood, 3). That still doesn't explain how climate change due to the rifting could cause early man (or apes) to stand up straight, or to be smarter, but it is more interesting than some of the other material in the article.

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Latest APA Format (6th edition)

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"East Africa's Great Rift Valley" (2012, July 14) Retrieved June 6, 2026, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/east-africa-great-rift-valley-71069

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"East Africa's Great Rift Valley" 14 July 2012. Web.6 June. 2026. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/east-africa-great-rift-valley-71069>

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

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"East Africa's Great Rift Valley", 14 July 2012, Accessed.6 June. 2026,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/east-africa-great-rift-valley-71069
   

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