15/04/2025
Eso esta grave
A 35-mile rift in Ethiopia opened in 2005 — proof that Africa is literally tearing in two and forming a new ocean.
Beneath the scorching expanse of East Africa’s Afar region, a dramatic geological transformation is slowly unfolding — Africa is literally splitting apart.
Recent satellite data and GPS measurements have enabled scientists to closely monitor the East African Rift System, a unique tectonic environment where three plates—the Nubian, Somali, and Arabian—are pulling away from one another.
This rifting process, which has been underway for millions of years, is progressing at rates of mere millimeters to centimeters annually. But over geological time, it’s building toward a monumental shift: the birth of a new ocean and the eventual separation of East Africa into a distinct landmass.
This process is most visibly exemplified by a 35-mile-long fissure that cracked open in Ethiopia’s desert in 2005—an abrupt event that simulated hundreds of years of tectonic activity in just a few days. Scientists, including volcanologists and geophysicists, believe that this and other sudden rifting episodes are fueled by rising magma, creating immense pressure within the Earth’s crust. The Afar region, known as one of the few terrestrial analogs for mid-ocean ridges, offers a rare glimpse into the mechanisms that transform continental rift zones into oceanic basins. Over the next 5 to 10 million years, water from the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden is expected to inundate the rift valley, forming a new ocean and reshaping the map of Africa forever.
learn more
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/african-continent-very-slowly-peeling-apart-scientists-say-new-ocean-n1234128
Top image
https://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=221113
Bottom image
CC BY-SA 3.0 / Twitter
Text and top image added
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en
