Birthing pains as Red Sea grows to become our newest ocean

According to Associate Professor Peter Betts at Australia's Monash University, the Red Sea in on tap to become Earth's newest ocean.

The regular earth tremors felt by people living around the Red Sea are the "birthing pains of Earth's newest ocean – the ocean that the Red Sea will eventually grow up to become", Australian tectonics specialist at Australia's Monash University Associate Professor Peter Betts, says.

The sea is young in geological terms – just 24 million years old – and is the one place on the planet where a new ocean plate is still forming, as the African and the Arabian continental plates move away from one another until they eventually split.

Scientists are saying that the imminent split of the African and Arabian plates could happen anytime now; today or in thousands of years. This is due to an increase in seismic activity in the last ten years.

Betts says one cell in the southern Red Sea region has been active for several million years. "However, the increase in seismic activity in the region indicates that a second, more central cell is now awakening," he says. "In the past 10 years, dyking [magma emplacement] indicates where the new cell is activating."
This dyking is a build-up of magma that precedes the splitting of the Earth's mantle to form a new ocean ridge from which the magma will flow to form ocean crust. Dr Almalki says this could happen any time: next week or in thousands of years. His data analysis and modelling have also identified another one or possibly two "embryo" cells further north of the one awakening.

The world/environment is changing, ATS. It looks like we'll have to set up shop on MARS sooner rather than later. What says ATS?

blog.cosmosmagazine.com...

Out of the frying pan and into the fire. I would never want to live on Mars.

a reply to: lostbook
Interesting but I consider it more doom porn. This process probably has hundreds if not thousands of years until it pops and even if it does happen sooner rather than later. Mankind will still be here. Mars ain't ready for us yet.

a reply to: lostbook

I wouldn't say this something to be worried about, unless there is another factor not being talked about (like the use of fracking and how THAT is somehow causing this process unnaturally). I would interpret it as normal geological processes and evidence that our planet's tectonic activity is ongoing and measurable.

Hopefully a new oceanic region could allow some of the marine species to have a fighting chance after the overfishing, pollution and ocean acidification but I'm afraid we're poisoning the ocean and destroying ecosystems too rapidly.

I really think that as the Red Sea widens or drifts away from Arabia a new Ocean will not be the result...
look at a map

as the Red Sea widens the existing Indian Ocean will be acquiring a 2nd, western, super-bay
this process of splitting away will be millions of years of centimeter per-year spreading as exists now between Europe and N America
In fact in perhaps 100,000 years the geography coastlines might resemble the Carribbean -Gulf of Mexico of today

Well, the Pacific is a dying ocean which is what the Ring of Fire is all about, subduction zones. The Atlantic is a young ocean and expanding with it's mid-ocean ridge. So, if the Red Sea splits and widens, it will be pushing in behind the Pacific and competing against the forces of the Atlantic. I'm not sure exactly what the Indian is doing without looking immediately at a map of tectonic plates. I'll bet there will be a neat new mountain range like the Himilayas shooting up somewhere between this new zone and the Atlantic push.