Africa is slowly but surely splitting in two . Like anything in geology , it ’s an extremely long process that will take meg upon trillion of twelvemonth , but it will eventually see part of East Africa chip off from the rest of the continent , likely result in a new sea get up between the two earth masses .
The colossal breakup is assort with the East African Rift System ( EARS ) , one of the great rifts in the world that stretch downwards for thousands of klick through several countries in Africa , include Ethiopia , Kenya , the Democratic Republic of the Congo , Uganda , Rwanda , Burundi , Zambia , Tanzania , Malawi , and Mozambique .
This rift scheme means that the African crustal plate is splitting into two – the minor Somali plate and the expectant Nubian plateful – that are pulling away from each other at a super - sluggish snail ’s gait of millimeter per year , consort to a2004 study .
A map of East Africa showing some of the historically active volcanoes (red triangles), as well the two parts of the African Plate (the Nubian and the Somalian) splitting along the East African Rift Zone.Image credit: USGS
Back in 2018 , tidings of a fissure emerging in Kenya go bad viral , with many arrogate that this was grounds of Africa snap in two before our eyes . While this startling scene was touch to the ear , it ’s a bit shoddy to present it as live evidence of Africa ’s slap-up stock split - up .
AsIFLSciencepreviously pointed out , this was potential just a highly localized expression of the vale ’s regular rifting activity . The ear has been in this current procedure for around 25 million years and the crack in Kenya was an indirect whisper of what ’s occurring on the continent .
However , in another 5 million to 10 million twelvemonth , variety in the EARS could result in a drastically different - depend world . Around this timeframe , we are likely to see a young ocean form between the Somali plate and the Nubian denture . The great continent of Africa will turn a loss its easterly shoulder joint and a vast sea will cut off East Africa .
As strange as this may seem , it ’s worth remembering that Earth ’s surface isin a constant State Department of flux ; it ’s just so slow that human experience ca n’t calculate for it .
The appearance of the reality as we know it is relatively unexampled . The land and sea we see today – of Eurasia , the Americas , Africa , Antarctica , and Oceania – are the product of vast architectonic plate that slot together like a scroll saw mystifier . Very slowly , however , these jigsaw pieces move around on a timescale of zillion of years .
Just think of the split - up that the Earth sawaround 138 million class agowhen South America and Africa divided . If you look at the west coast of Africa and the east coast of South America , you ’ll notice they fit together like two jigsaw piece , beautifully highlighting how these continents were once join as one .
The departure of East Africa will just be another page in this giant geologic storybook . Who knows whether humanity will be around to see any of these variety , but itdoesn’t wait too hopeful .
A old version of this clause waspublished in March 2023 .
