The Midcontinent Rift is the largest-known continental rift in the world.

If they continue, continental rifts will eventually become oceanic rifts.

Magmas of such rocks are formed in a variety of environments, including continental rifts, ocean islands, and supra-subduction positions in subduction zones.

Examples of active continental rifts are the Baikal Rift Zone and the East African Rift.

Further north the northwesterly structural trend of the Coast Mountains lies partly in a large continental rift responsible for the creation of several volcanoes.

The island of Pantelleria is located above a drowned continental rift in the Strait of Sicily and has been the focus of intensive volcano-tectonic activity.

Sediments of sand and mud filled and eventually covered the developing continental rifts.

Eventually the continental rift forms a mid-oceanic ridge and the locus of extension moves away from the continent-ocean boundary.

An interpretation is that deposits occurred in a tidal area, with a continental rift allowing magma from the mantle to intrude.

The sedimentary rocks associated with continental rifts host important deposits of both minerals and hydrocarbons.