graben

A rift valley, usually of great size, formed when a narrow block of the Earth's crust drops down between two normal faults.

A graben is the result of a block of land being downthrown producing a valley with a distinct scarp on each side.

Graben are produced from parallel normal faults, where the hanging wall is downthrown and the footwall is upthrown. Horsts are parallel blocks that remain between grabens, the bounding faults of a horst typically dip away from the center line of the horst.

A single or multiple graben can produce a rift valley. The Rhine valley to the North of Basel, Switzerland The Oslo graben around Oslo, Norway Death Valley in California, United States The East African Rift Valley The Saguenay River Valley The Narmada River valley in central India The lower Godavari River valley in southern India Rima Ariadaeus on the Moon