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

AFRICA is splitting isolated astatine treble the velocity than scientists archetypal thought.

A 35-mile-long ace successful Ethiopia's desert, archetypal discovered successful 2005, has been widening by fractional an inch per year.

That's doubly arsenic accelerated arsenic the complaint astatine which toenails grow.

Researchers antecedently believed the fissure would divided the continent successful two, a process that would instrumentality tens of millions of years.

But a idiosyncratic has precocious warned that it would apt hap wrong 1 to 5 cardinal years.

Africa's tectonic plates person collided to signifier ample mountains and pulled isolated to make immense basins; they present look to beryllium splitting the continent successful two.

"What mightiness hap is that the waters of the Indian Ocean would travel successful and flood what is present the East African Rift Valley," Ken Macdonald, a prof astatine the University of California, Santa Barbara, told the Mail Online.

The divided would make a caller ocean, and a tiny caller continent that the prof said could beryllium called the "Nubian continent".

Somalia and parts of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania volition signifier a chiseled continent, accompanied by a caller coastline.

The caller water could go arsenic heavy arsenic the Atlantic if waters proceed to travel into the area, added Macdonald.

Six landlocked countries, including Malawi, Zambia, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, could yet summation beaches—should they inactive beryllium that acold into the future.

Continental drift hasn't been observed for hundreds of millions of years.

"In the quality beingness scale, you won't beryllium seeing galore changes," Macdonald explained.

"You'll beryllium feeling earthquakes, you'll beryllium seeing volcanoes erupt, but you won't spot the water intrude successful our lifetimes."

A caller ocean

Africa is location to immoderate of the largest lakes connected Earth, known arsenic the African Great Lakes.

The h2o from these lakes is expected to provender the caller ocean.

The lakes relationship for astir 25 per cent of each the unfrozen aboveground caller h2o connected the planet, according to erstwhile Nasa and Space Force advisor Alexandra Doten.

"And they already clasp astir 10 percent of each of Earth's food species," she said.

"The lakes formed due to the fact that eastbound Africa is separating from the remainder of the continent. 

"That Somali sheet is continuing to determination adjacent further east, creating a elephantine rift vale close here. It keeps going.

"Eventually, Eastern Africa is going to go its caller continent, separated from the remainder of Africa by a caller ocean."