Tectonic plate shifts in Ethiopia show that the African continent is splitting in two – paving the way for Earth’s sixth ocean to emerge, according to researchers.
The shift between tectonic plates has been ongoing since the East African Rift – a 35-mile-long crack in Ethiopia’s desert – emerged in 2005.
The separation of the Somalian tectonic plate and the larger Nubian tectonic plate will effectively split the world’s second-largest continent in two – a phenomenon that hasn’t been observed in hundreds of millions of years when South America and Africa were divided into different continents.
The findings are based on a 2004 study on the separation of the Somalian tectonic plate and the larger Nubian tectonic plate. The study, which was published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, found that the plates separate a few millimeters per year.
What will a split Africa look like?
Currently-landlocked countries in Africa, such as Ethiopia, Uganda and more will see the introduction of a coastline – expanding possibilities for trade and production. Further, the split would lead to the emergence of a new ocean.
“The Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea will flood in over the Afar region and into the East African Rift Valley and become a new ocean, and that part of East Africa will become its own separate small continent,” Ken Macdonald, a marine geophysicist and a professor emeritus at the University of California, told Mashable.
How Africa is splitting apart pic.twitter.com/1ZkafE6fYy
— MissFacto (@missfacto) February 1, 2024
While the splitting of the African continent and the subsequent ocean that would arise holds an abundance of possibilities, the continent will not completely split for another 5 to 10 million years, according to researchers.
