Summary:
- Continental rifting can create major ocean basins, like the Atlantic.
- A divergent plate boundary runs through the Gulf of California in Mexico.
- The divergence is pulling Baja California and mainland Mexico apart.
- In continental rifting, magma rises beneath the continent, causing it to become thinner, break, and ultimately split apart.
- New ocean crust erupts in the void, ultimately creating an ocean between continents.
- The Atlantic Ocean is the final stage, where rifting is now separating two plates of oceanic crust.