A 35-mile-long crack in Ethiopia's desert, widening annually, is a sign of Africa's tectonic plates separating, potentially forming a new ocean and continent. This process, known as continental rifting, is predicted to take tens of millions of years. Scientists believe that the East African Rift Valley will eventually split, allowing the Indian Ocean to flood the region and create a new sea. Somalia and parts of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania will become a new continent, known as the 'Nubian continent', with a fresh coastline. The process is gradual, with humans unlikely to witness the full transformation within their lifetime. However, they will experience seismic activity and volcanic eruptions as the continent continues to rift apart.
A 35-mile-long crack in Ethiopia 's desert, first discovered in 2005, has been widening by half an inch per year. Researchers previously believed this fissure would split the continent in two, a process that would take tens of millions of years. Africa 's tectonic plates have collided to form large mountains and pulled apart to create vast basins; they now appear to be splitting the continent in two.
'What might happen is that the waters of the Indian Ocean would come in and flood what is now the East African Rift Valley,' Ken Macdonald, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told .The split would create a new ocean, and a small new continent that the professor said could be called the 'Nubian continent'. Somalia and parts of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania will form a distinct continent, accompanied by a fresh coastline. The new ocean could become as deep as the Atlantic if waters continue to flow into the area, added Macdonald. Six landlocked countries, including Malawi, Zambia, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, could finally gain beaches—should they still exist that far into the future. 'In the human life scale, you won't be seeing many changes,' Macdonald explained. 'You'll be feeling earthquakes, you'll be seeing volcanoes erupt, but you won't see the ocean intrude in our lifetimes.' The water from these lakes is expected to feed the new ocean. The lakes account for about 25 percent of all the unfrozen surface fresh water on the planet, according to former Nasa and Space Force consultant Alexandra Doten. 'That Somali plate is continuing to move even further east, creating a giant rift valley right here. It keeps going. 'Eventually, Eastern Africa is going to become its new continent, separated from the rest of Africa by a new ocean.' The geological process is known as “continental rifting”, where tectonic plates move away from one another. Underneath the crust, hotspots of magma forced through weaknesses in the crust and eventually split it. Continental rifting is nothing new for Earth—and is the reason why we have seven continents today. Roughly 240 million years ago, long before humans roamed, Earth was home to just one supercontinent known as Pangaea. But scientists believe that about 200 million years ago, that giant landmass began to be torn apart when a three-pronged fissure grew between Africa, South America, and North America. The Scottish Highlands, the Appalachians, and the Atlas Mountains were actually all part of the same mountain range on Pangaea, but were torn apart by continental drift.
Africa Rift Valley Continental Rifting New Ocean New Continent Geology Tectonic Plates Somalia Ethiopia Kenya Tanzania
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