- The East African Rift is slowly splitting Africa into two tectonic plates
- The rift began 25 million years ago and extends from the Red Sea to Mozambique
- Afar region is where three tectonic rifts meet, forming a unique Triple Junction
A huge crack is slowly opening across Africa, and scientists say it could one day create a brand-new ocean. Although this change will take millions of years, researchers are closely watching how the land is gradually pulling apart. This rift is developing along the East African Rift (EAR), where the eastern part of Africa, called the Somalian Plate, is separating from the larger Nubian Plate that forms the rest of the continent. This process is very slow, with the plates moving only a few millimeters each year. Experts estimate that complete separation will take millions of years, reported Newsweek.
To the north, the Nubian and Somalian plates are also moving away from the Arabian Plate, forming a Y-shaped rift system. These three plates meet in the Afar region of Ethiopia, at what scientists call the "Triple Junction." This is one of the few places in the world where three tectonic rifts, the Ethiopian, Red Sea, and Gulf of Aden Rifts, meet together.
The East African Rift originated approximately 25 million years ago during the Miocene epoch. It originates at the Afar Triple Junction and stretches approximately 2,174 miles from the Red Sea to Mozambique. Its eastern branch passes through Ethiopia and Kenya, while the western branch extends in a curved pattern from Uganda to Malawi.
The Earth's crust in the Afar region has already thinned significantly. Some areas lie below sea level, and two arms of the rift are already submerged in the waters of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Scientists believe that as the land in between sinks further, seawater will rapidly infiltrate, creating a new oceanic region between the diverging plates.
D. Sarah Stamps, a geophysicist at Virginia Tech, told ECONews that the rate of spreading is highest in the north, so the formation of a new ocean will be visible there first.
Normally, the plates are moving apart at a rate of about 0.28 inches per year. At this slow rate, it would take millions of years for a large ocean basin to form. Nevertheless, scientists warn that this gradual change could quickly impact people through earthquakes and volcanic hazards.
The Earth's surface is composed of 15 to 20 tectonic plates that float on the hot, molten mantle beneath. Geologists have long believed that a mantle plume, a rising column of extremely hot material, exists beneath the Afar region, driving the separation of the crust.
A study published this month in the Journal of African Earth Sciences sheds new light on the magnetic structure of the Afar region's crust and the process of the African continent's division. The research revealed that Africa and Arabia separated along a single rift after the formation of the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea rifts. The African Rift later formed, possibly pulled apart by a powerful surge of hot material, and it remains active today.
Last June, another study published in Nature Geoscience suggested that this separation process may be driven by pulse-like waves of molten rock rising from deep within the Earth.
Although this change is very slow and will take millions of years to fully unfold, scientists are constantly studying this region to better understand the new ocean that will form in the future.
