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LiveScience

Sascha Pare

North America's 'broken heart': The billion-year-old scar from when the continent nearly ripped apart

North America Earth NPS Lake Superior Midwest Nature

Sunrise above Michigan's Lake of the Clouds. We see a ridge of basalt in the foreground.

QUICK FACTS

Name: The Midcontinent Rift

Location: U.S. Midwest

Why it's incredible: The rift nearly broke North America in half around 1 billion years ago.

North America's "broken heart" is an ancient rift valley in the Midwestern United States. The rifting began roughly 1.1 billion years ago due to tectonic forces pulling what is now the North American continent in opposite directions. Evidence suggests the rifting process stalled about 100,000 years after it began, but scientists aren't sure why.

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