During the Triassic, central Virginia was a rift basin.

The trough is a linear belt of sedimentary and volcanic rocks which developed in an Early Proterozoic rift basin.

This sequence was deposited by lakes and rivers in the developing rift basin.

The rift basins appear to be hydrologically closed, with no lateral transfer of water.

The following is a list of the rift basins, listed from south to north (as in this article's opening image).

It accumulated at the bottom of a deep rift basin, which was filled with marine water, within submarine fan and slope environments.

Foreland basins represent an endmember basin type, the other being rift basins.

Buchan metamorphism occurs often in extensional settings, for example at rift basins.

The crust thins and sinks, forming a rift basin.

Warm mantle material wells up, melting the crust and often causing volcanoes to emerge in the rift basin.