Shocking images attest to the African landmasses slowly divorcing themselves from one another, culminating in the generation of a new ocean.
Vulnerable areas across Africa are suffering from the profound split, which over time will form an ocean between them. In just a few short years, two parts of Kenya have already gone so far asunder that a novel sea may eventually appear in their space.
If this phenomenon persists, two African nations Zambia and Uganda could find themselves with beachfronts someday. Expert studies on the East African Rift – presently fracturing Africa’s diversity – predict it will shape into an ocean eons down the line.
Research has pinpointed the origin point of a crack that is currently 35 miles long, located in the Ethiopian desert.
This crack began forming back in 2005 as the result of gradual movement between three tectonic plates.
As reported in the peer-reviewed journal Geophysical Research Letters, international investigators have been able to identify exactly where it all started.
Christopher Moore, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Leeds, was recently interviewed by NBC News.
In his commentary, he noted that East Africa is the only place on Earth where you can observe the continental rift turning into an oceanic rift. To get to this conclusion, Moore used satellite radar imaging to measure volcanic movements in East Africa – a region known for its gradual fragmentation from Africa.
The crack, which is formed by the African, Arabian and Somali tectonic plates, has been steadily widening over the last 30 million years. The Arabian plate stands out in this process as it is gradually drifting away from Africa at a rate of roughly an inch per year. On the other hand, the African and Somali plates are only separating at a slower rate of between 0.2 to half an inch annually.
Experts are predicting that the current gap between the African and Arabian plates will continue to widen in the future, eventually making East Africa its own distinct continent.
According to Ken Macdonald, a professor emeritus at UC Berkeley and experienced marine geophysicist, GPS measurements show us that the rate of expansion is occurring at only a few millimeters per year. As more and more GPS measurements come in, we can gain a greater understanding of what’s taking place.
It has been suggested that due to this process, the Gulf of Aden will flood over into East Africa’s Rift Valley and create a completely new ocean. This means East Africa will be separated from the rest of the continent, forming its own smaller continent.