Is Africa dividing into two continents? 1
A giant crack is gradually dividing Africa, the second largest continent in the world.
Will Africa be completely divided?
So will Africa be completely divided, and if so, when will it happen?
To answer this question, let’s look at the region’s tectonic plates, the outer parts of the Earth’s surface that can collide with each other, forming mountains, or pull apart, creating
Along this giant rift in eastern Africa, the Somali tectonic plate is pulling eastward from the larger, older part of the continent, the Nubian tectonic plate, according to NASA’s Earth Observatory.
The Somali and Nubian plates are also separating from the Arabian plate to the north.
Rift from 35 million years ago
The East African Rift began forming about 35 million years ago between Arabia and the Horn of Africa on the east side of the continent, said Cynthia Ebinger, chair of the geology department at Tulane University in New Orleans and a scientific advisor to the
The rift consists of two sets of wide parallel cracks in the Earth’s crust.
Ebinger said the existence of the east and west rifts as well as the discovery of offshore earthquake and volcanic zones shows that Africa’s rift is gradually opening up, totaling more than 6
`The current rift is happening very slowly, equivalent to the speed at which a person’s toenails grow,` said Ken Macdonald, professor emeritus of Earth sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA.
How will Africa divide?
According to the Geological Society of London, the East African Rift most likely formed due to heat radiating from the weaker, upper reaches of the Earth’s mantle – between Kenya and Ethiopia.
If Africa is indeed divided, there will be many different opinions about how that could happen.
The new enclave will include Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti and the eastern parts of Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique, Ebinger said.
Another scenario has just eastern Tanzania and Mozambique separating, Ebinger noted.
Ebinger said if the African continent were to rupture, the rifts in Ethiopia and Kenya could separate to create the Somali Plate within the next 1 million to 5 million years.
However, Africa may not divide in two.
According to the Geological Society of London, the eastern branch of the East African Rift is a failed rift.
Professor Macdonald said: “What we don’t know is whether this rifting will continue at the current rate to eventually open up an ocean basin, like the Red Sea, and then something bigger.
According to Live Science
