Giant Crack in Africa Will Create a New Ocean

Mon Nov 2, 5:43 pm ET
A 35-mile rift in the desert of Ethiopia will likely become a new ocean eventually, researchers now confirm.


The crack, 20 feet wide in spots, opened in 2005 and some geologists believed then that it would spawn a new ocean. But that view was controversial, and the rift had not been well studied.


A new study involving an international team of scientists and reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters finds the processes creating the rift are nearly identical to what goes on at the bottom of oceans, further indication a sea is in the region's future

news.yahoo.com...

The same rift activity is slowly parting the Red Sea, too.

The Red Sea is parting again, but this time Moses doesn’t have a hand in it.

Satellite images show that the Arabian tectonic plate and the African plate are moving away from each other, stretching the Earth's crust and widening the southern end of the Red Sea, scientists reported in this week's issue of journal Nature.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/e27190dffd38.jpg[/atsimg]
Aerial photo of the cracks and faults that formed in September, 2005. These cracks formed above the zone where molten rock rose into the plate, reaching to within approximately 1.2 miles of the surface. Credit: Julie Rowland, University of Auckland

www.livescience.com...

Either a huge earthquake or cataclysmic event would have to happen in these areas to split them, reminds me of the separation of the Continents.

This is truly a remarkable event taking place for us to study plate tectonics and volcanism at the same time. I saw another thread like this and the picture they sported showed a part of the rift that was a lot wider than twenty feet because it showed the scientists standing on the edge of the rift.

I would be very pleased to visit this region to study this activity as I am a student working on a doctorate in geochemical volcanology and love to study these things. There is special kinds of volcanism associated with this rift that can only be found in that region at this time. These are carbonatite lavas. Nice thread but it isn't the first on the subject.

reply to post by Angel One


Angel One I hope that you have the opportunity to visit this area in the future, if and when you do I look forward to a full report, know these things take time, good luck to you.