For thousands of years, Earth has been divided into seven continents and several oceans and seas. Scientists say, however, that over time this all could change. Africa is slowly but surely splitting into two continents, and one day they will be separated by a brand new ocean. (1)
A New Ocean Forming in Africa
Deep underground in the Afar region of East Africa, the continent is slowly coming apart. Eventually, parts of Ethiopia and Somalia will split off, water will rush in, and a new ocean will form. (1)
The Afar region of Africa is one of the world’s hottest places and sits on top of the meeting point for three tectonic plates. Tectonic plates are essentially the jigsaw-type pieces that make up the Earth’s crust, except they don’t quite fit together so well and are constantly bumping against each other. (1)
Over the last 30 million years, the Arabian plate has been moving away from Africa. This is what created the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Now, the Somali plate is pulling away from the Nubian plate. This has created a 35-mile-long crack in the Ethiopian desert that first appeared in 2005. (2)
Scientists say that it will likely take five to 10 million years for this new ocean to actually form, but studying what’s causing the rift to happen will provide valuable information about our Earth’s surface and how it functions. (1)
Why Are The Plates Pulling Apart?
That is the question that the geologists are still trying to figure out. The massive crack in 2005 only took days to appear but was the equivalent of several hundred years of tectonic plate movements. (1)
Over the last decade, some have suggested that volcanic activity and underground eruptions are what’s causing the split. (2) Others, however, aren’t so sure. (1)
GPS technology has improved greatly in the last 10 years, allowing scientists to take increasingly more precise measurements of how the ground is moving over time, down to a few millimeters per year. These measurements give them a much better picture of what’s actually going on in the crust. (1)
Improved satellite technology is also helping map out what’s happening on this arid plane. (1)
The research, however, doesn’t come without its challenges.
Dante’s Inferno
Afar contains the hottest inhabited town on the planet, which earned itself the nickname Dante’s Inferno. Daily temperatures frequently reach 130F and around 95 degrees at nighttime. (1)
A geophysicist from Tulane University, Cynthia Ebinger, says these conditions make studying the plane much more difficult. However, they must continue to do so to better understand what happens beneath the soil. (1)
So far, she and her teams have found that this process of plates moving apart is not smooth and even, but rather slow with several big jerks every so often. (1)
She says that magma pressure could be what triggered the crack in the Afar region, but it’s hard to say for certain. (1)
“We’re trying to understand the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” she said. (1)
University of California, Santa Barbara geophysicist Ken Macdonald explains that each plate in the Afar region is moving apart from the others, but each at its own speeds. The combination of these three splitting plates is creating a mid-ocean-ridge system. (1) Over millions of years, a new ocean will form here. (2)
What Makes the Scientists So Sure?
Though the process is incredibly slow, the signs are all there. According to Christopher Moore, a Ph.D. student from the University of Leeds, this is all because of the differences between oceanic and the Earth’s crust. (1)
“We can see that oceanic crust is starting to form, because it’s distinctly different from continental crust in its composition and density,” he explained. (1)
Though this new ocean won’t form for millions of years, scientists can use this as a window into furthering our understanding of tectonic plate activity. The information will help us better understand other tectonic activities elsewhere in the world and how they might affect us in the future.
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- “The African continent is very slowly peeling apart. Scientists say a new ocean is being born.” NBC News. Denise Chow. July 16, 2020.
- “Africa ‘witnessing birth of a new ocean’.” BBC. Matt McGrath. June 2010.