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Experts Predict Africa Will Split in Two to Form a New Ocean Due to the Crack Emerged In-Between

Scientists believe that Africa's rift valley could become the site of an ocean, due to a crack in the surface's tectonic plate.
PUBLISHED 1 DAY AGO
Aeriel view of the lakes of the African Rift Valley (Cover Image Source: Wikimedia Commons/Photo by SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE)
Aeriel view of the lakes of the African Rift Valley (Cover Image Source: Wikimedia Commons/Photo by SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE)

Scientists as per the current findings, are predicting that a sixth ocean could become a fixture on Earth in the future. Researchers are speculating that the ocean will form in Africa due to changes in the East African Rift System (EARS), Indy100 reported. A crack has developed in this system, which will cause landforms to separate and make way for an ocean. 

Water texture. View of a lake surface texture with a gentle touch of sunlight. - stock photo (Image Source: Getty Images/Photo by BAOYAN ZENG)
View of a lake surface texture with a gentle touch of sunlight. (Image Source: Getty Images/Photo by BAOYAN ZENG)

Landforms are always going through changes, even though they are not visible to the naked eye, UNILAD reported. Tectonic plates undergo subtle alterations for millions of years to facilitate transformations in the physical features of this planet. The crack that will reportedly bring about the sixth ocean, has been located in the African, Arabian, and Somali tectonic plates of the EARS.

Experts have observed that the Arabian plate has been distancing itself from the African continent for the last 30 million years. At the same time, the Somali plate is also undergoing a separation from the African plate. These separations have facilitated the crack, that will eventually result in a sixth ocean, according to scientists. 

Researchers believe that after the phenomenon, landlocked countries such as Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, and Zambia will gain a coastline, Indy100 reported. This change can have an impact on the environment of these countries. 

Experts have made their conclusions about the consequences of this crack with the help of GPS technology, UNILAD reported. "With GPS measurements, you can measure rates of movement down to a few millimeters per year. As we get more and more measurements from GPS, we can get a much greater sense of what’s going on,” Marine geophysicist and a professor based at the University of California, Ken Macdonald explained. 



 

Researchers are citing erosion as one of the possible causes behind the facilitation of the crack, The Guardian reported. "Given the evidence available at present, the best and simplest explanation is that this crack was in fact formed by the erosion of soil beneath the surface due to recent heavy rains in Kenya," Stephen Hicks, a seismology researcher at the University of Southampton stated.

These movements have already started troubling the habitants of the area, Daily Nation reported. In 2018, the underground movements in the Rift Valley caused deep fissures in Narok County. This resulted in the Maai Mahiu-Narok road, transforming from an even plain of fertile, arable land to a rigged expanse, containing a huge tear, with a depth of 50 feet and a width of 20 meters running through it. Families living near the fissure had to move out, to escape similar phenomena in the future.

Aerial view of Suguta River in the Great Rift Valley. Kenya - stock photo (Image Source: Getty Images/Photo by Martin Harvey)
Aerial view of Suguta River in the Great Rift Valley, Kenya
(Image Source: Getty Images/Photo by Martin Harvey)

Scientists have clarified that the new ocean is still millions of years away, but when it does descend it will flow across the entirety of the Rift Valley, UNILAD reported. "The Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea will flood in over the Afar region and into the East African Rift Valley and become a new ocean, and that part of East Africa will become its own separate small continent," Macdonald explained.

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