Africa is splitting apart at surprising speed and could create new ocean as deep as the Atlantic, experts warn

AFRICA is dissolving twice as quickly as scientists initially predicted.

First identified in 2005, a 35-mile-long fissure in Ethiopia’s desert has been growing by half an inch annually.

That is twice as quick as the growth of toenails.

When the rift first formed, scientists thought it would take tens of millions of years for the continent to split in two.

However, it is expected to occur within one to five million years, according to a recent warning from a scientist.

The tectonic plates of Africa have driven apart to generate enormous basins and collided to form massive mountains; they now seem to be dividing the continent in two.

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According to Ken Macdonald, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, “what might happen is that the waters of the Indian Ocean would come in and flood what is now the East African Rift Valley,” his Mail Online article stated.

A new ocean and a little new continent that the professor said might be known as the “Nubian continent” would result from the split.

Along with a new coastline, Somalia and portions of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania will constitute a separate continent.

According to Macdonald, if seas keep flowing into the region, the new ocean might grow as deep as the Atlantic.

If they remain that long into the future, beaches could ultimately be added to six landlocked nations: Malawi, Zambia, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

For hundreds of millions of years, there has been no evidence of continental drift.

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Macdonald clarified, “You won’t be seeing many changes in the human life scale.”

“You’ll be feeling earthquakes, you’ll be seeing volcanoes erupt, but you won’t see the ocean intrude in our lifetimes.”

A new ocean

The African Great Lakes are some of the world’s largest lakes and are found in Africa.

The new ocean is anticipated to be nourished by the water from these lakes.

According to former NASA and Space Force analyst Alexandra Doten, the lakes make up over 25% of the planet’s total unfrozen surface fresh water.

“And they already hold about 10 percent of all of Earth’s fish species,” she continued.

“Eastern Africa is separating from the rest of the continent, which is why the lakes emerged.

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Here, a massive rift valley is being formed by the Somali plate’s continued eastward movement. It continues.

“Eventually, Eastern Africa is going to become its new continent, separated from the rest of Africa by a new ocean.”

What is causing Africa to split?

The movement of tectonic plates apart is referred to as continental rifting in geology.

Magma hotspots beneath the crust pushed through cracks and ultimately caused the crust to fracture.

Tens of millions of years are often needed for the process to occur.

Earth has seen continental rifting for a very long time, which is why there are currently seven continents.

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There was just one supercontinent on Earth, Pangaea, some 240 million years ago, long before people roamed the planet.

But according to experts, a three-pronged split that developed between Africa, South America, and North America around 200 million years ago started to tear apart that massive landmass.

In reality, the Atlas Mountains, the Appalachians, and the Scottish Highlands were all a single mountain range on Pangaea that was split apart by continental drift.

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