Great Rift

American  

noun

Astronomy.

1. a group of large dark clouds in the Milky Way between the constellations Cygnus and Sagittarius.

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Example Sentences

Fourteen schoolchildren were among the dozens of Kenyans killed when two mudslides struck the Great Rift Valley area, according to the country's education ministry.

From BBC • Nov. 3, 2025

Coffee plants have long been thought to have developed in Ethiopia, but varieties that the team collected around the Great Rift Valley, which stretches from Southeast Africa to Asia, displayed a clear geographic split.

From Science Daily • Apr. 15, 2024

Some believed the trend was tied to the complex geology and groundwater hydrology of the Great Rift Valley, a series of faults and ridges stretching 7000 kilometers from Lebanon across eastern Africa to Mozambique.

From Science Magazine • Oct. 26, 2023

Because radio waves can pass through dust unscathed, these studies were able to pierce the shadows cast by the Great Rift and other starlight-blocking interstellar clouds.

From Scientific American • Aug. 4, 2023

I write about lost sisters and the Great Rift Valley and my barefoot mother glaring at the ocean.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver