Scientists from around the world are studying a geological phenomenon that affects Africa and implies the separation of tectonic plates that will cause the rupture of that African continent into two parts, between which a new ocean basin will appear within 5 to 10 million years.
A manifestation of this is already visible on the surface, where there is a crack of more than 56 kilometers that appeared in 2005 in a desert in the Ethiopian region of Afar.
“That is the only place on Earth where you can study how a continental rift (or tectonic breakdown) becomes an ocean rift. You can already see the beginning of the formation of an oceanic crust in the area, which is clearly different from the continental crust in its composition and density ”, said Christopher Moore, doctoral student of the University of Leeds, of England, in statements to NBC News.
In that region of Ethiopia There are two tectonic plates, the Arabian and the African. And it is the second that is dividing between the Nubian plate and the Somali plate.
It should be remembered that the separation of the Arabian and African plates caused the creation of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
All plates move at different speeds. While the Arabian slips just over 2.5 centimeters per year, the speed of the segments of the African plate varies between 0.5 and 1.2 centimeters per year.
“The Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea will flood the Afar region and the East African Rift and become a new ocean. And that part of East Africa will become its own separate small continent. “, he pointed Ken Macdonald, marine geophysicist and professor emeritus of the University of California.
Many experts think that this movement of plates and, as a consequence, the rift is due to volcanic activity in the region, since the increasing pressure of rising magma could cause these events.
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