Editing Rift (section)

==Economic importance==
The sedimentary rocks associated with continental rifts host important deposits of both minerals and [[hydrocarbon]]s.<ref name="USGS">{{cite web|url=http://marine.usgs.gov/fact-sheets/baikal/|title=Lake Baikal - A Touchstone for Global Change and Rift Studies|last=United States Geological Survey|year=1993|access-date=28 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120629180319/http://marine.usgs.gov/fact-sheets/baikal/|archive-date=29 June 2012}}</ref>

===Mineral deposits===
[[Sedimentary exhalative deposits|SedEx]] mineral deposits are found mainly in continental rift settings. They form within post-rift sequences when hydrothermal fluids associated with magmatic activity are expelled at the seabed.<ref name="Groves">{{cite journal|last=Groves|first=D.I.|author2=Bierlein F.P. |year=2007|title=Geodynamic settings of mineral deposit systems|journal=Journal of the Geological Society|volume=164|pages=19–30|url=http://jgs.lyellcollection.org/content/164/1/19.abstract|access-date=27 October 2012|issue=1|doi=10.1144/0016-76492006-065|bibcode=2007JGSoc.164...19G|s2cid=129680970|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

===Oil and gas===
Continental rifts are the sites of significant oil and gas accumulations, such as the [[Geology of the North Sea|Viking Graben]] and the [[Gulf of Suez Rift]]. Thirty percent of [[giant oil and gas fields]] are found within such a setting.<ref name="Mann">{{cite web|url=http://www.worldoil.com/September-2001-Tectonic-setting-of-the-worlds-giant-oil-fields.html|title=Tectonic setting of the world's giant oil fields|last=Mann|first=P. |author2=Gahagan L.  |author3=Gordon M.B.|year=2001|work=WorldOil Magazine|access-date=27 October 2012}}</ref> In 1999 it was estimated that there were 200 [[1000000000 (number)|billion]] [[Barrel (unit)#Oil barrel|barrels]] of recoverable oil reserves hosted in rifts. [[Source rock]]s are often developed within the sediments filling the active rift ([[Tectonostratigraphy#Effects of active tectonics on lithostratigraphy|syn-rift]]), forming either in a [[wikt:lacustrine|lacustrine]] environment or in a restricted marine environment, although not all rifts contain such sequences. [[Petroleum reservoir|Reservoir rocks]] may be developed in pre-rift, syn-rift and post-rift sequences. 

Effective regional seals may be present within the post-rift sequence if [[mudstone]]s or [[evaporite]]s are deposited. Just over half of estimated oil reserves are found associated with rifts containing marine syn-rift and post-rift sequences, just under a quarter in rifts with a non-marine syn-rift and post-rift, and an eighth in non-marine syn-rift with a marine post-rift.<ref name="Lambiase">{{cite journal|last=Lambiase|first=J.J.|author2=Morley C.K. |year=1999|title=Hydrocarbons in rift basins: the role of stratigraphy|journal=[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A]]|volume=357|issue=1753|pages=877–900|doi=10.1098/rsta.1999.0356 |bibcode=1999RSPTA.357..877L|s2cid=129564482|citeseerx=10.1.1.892.6422}}</ref>