A 56 kilometre-long crack in Ethiopia’s Afar region is slowly splitting the African continent apart.
The desert sits over three tectonic plates that are moving in a complex geological process that scientists believe will eventually create a new ocean on the African continent, according to NBC News.
The Afar region in Ethiopia.
‘This is the only place on Earth where you can study how continental rift becomes an oceanic rift,’ said Christopher Moore, a Ph.D. doctoral student at the University of Leeds.
‘We can see that oceanic crust is starting to form, because it’s distinctly different from continental crust in its composition and density,’ Moore added.
Scientists believe the Red Sea will eventually flow into the new sea in about a million years. The new ocean would connect to the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Somalia in eastern Africa, according to LiveScience.
The East African Rift has been forming for years and is one of the most extensive rifts on Earth’s surface, extending from Jordan, southward through eastern Africa to Mozambique. The geological system is some 6,400 km long and about 48–64 km wide, according to Britannica.
Image credit: Twitter/AfricanaFamba
