A NEW OCEAN IS FORMING IN AFRICA? THE GREAT AFRICAN RIFT: Africa’s splitting plates could give birth to a new ocean but with consequences. Evacuation of people and the potential loss of lives will be an unfortunate cost of this natural phenomenon.
The emergence of a new coastline is on the horizon, but not without its consequences. Scientists, in 2020, predicted a new ocean would be created as Africa gradually splits into two separate parts. The study has been recently picked up by media outlets as well.
The division of the continent is connected to the East African Rift, a crack that stretches 56 kilometres and appeared in the desert of Ethiopia in 2005, triggering the formation of a new sea, according to a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Geophysical Research Letters.
This geological process will inevitably divide the continent, resulting in currently landlocked countries, such as Uganda and Zambia, obtaining their own coastlines in due time, which would take five to 10 million years, Christopher Moore, a doctoral student at the University of Leeds, told media.
While the prospect of a new coastline is undoubtedly exciting, the process will not be without significant repercussions.
The necessary evacuation of people and the potential loss of lives will be an unfortunate cost of this natural phenomenon. However, on the upside, the emergence of new coastlines will unlock a myriad of opportunities for economic growth.
These countries will have access to new ports for trade, as well as fishing grounds and sub-sea internet infrastructure, which will undoubtedly transform their economic potential.
As the Somali and Nubian tectonic plates continue to pull apart from each other, a smaller continent will be created from the rift, which will include present-day Somalia and parts of Kenya, Ethiopia, and Tanzania.
The Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea will eventually flood into the Afar region in Ethiopia and the East African Rift Valley, leading to the formation of a new ocean, according to Ken Macdonald, a marine geophysicist at the University of California, told media.
This new ocean will result in East Africa becoming a separate small continent with its own unique geographic and ecological characteristics.
The three plates — the Nubian African Plate, Somalian African Plate and Arabian Plate — are separating at different speeds. The Arabian Plate is moving away from Africa at a rate of about an inch per year, while the two African plates are separating even slower, between half an inch to 0.2 inches per year, according to Macdonald.
What is rifting?
The Earth’s lithosphere, comprised of the crust and upper part of the mantle, is divided into several tectonic plates that are not stationary but rather move in relation to each other at varying speeds.
Tectonic forces not only move the plates but also have the potential to cause them to rupture, resulting in the formation of a rift and potentially leading to the creation of new plate boundaries.
Rifting refers to the geological process in which a single tectonic plate is split into two or more plates separated by divergent plate boundaries.
This process leads to the emergence of a lowland region known as a rift valley, which can occur either on land or at the bottom of the ocean. These rift valleys occur due to the movement of Earth’s tectonic plates, noted National Geographic.
The phenomenon of rifting can be traced back at least 138 million years, when South America and Africa were divided into separate continents, according to a report by UK-based science website IFLScience.
In the present day, the gradual separation of the Somali and Nubian tectonic plates is leading to the formation of a rift that could eventually lead to the creation of a new ocean basin.
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