Africa is going through a massive breakup thanks to an impending continental separation
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Africa is dividing in two, and a new landmass and ocean may form sooner than expected. The change could alter the climate and ecosystem of the region, as well as the way humans live. In the geologic history of Earth, shifting plate tectonics are commonplace. Africa's impending rift is but another chapter in that story.
The Earth's continents are far from constant. Plate tectonics have caused the landmasses to shift over time, and another shift is occurring in the 21st century.
Scientists have known for the past two decades that Africa has been splitting. In 2005, Ethiopia experienced earthquakes that caused the appearance of a 35-mile-long fissure in the desert called the East African Rift. "It marked the start of a long process in which the African plate is splitting into two tectonic plates: the Somali plate and the Nubian plate," said Unilad. Then, in 2018, another crack appeared in Kenya along the rift.
The cracks are "associated with the East African Rift System (EARS)," which stretches "downward for thousands of kilometers through several countries in Africa, including Ethiopia, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique," said IFL Science. The rift has been widening over time, and along the system there have been varying levels of seismic activity, according to a study published in the journal Frontiers in Earth Science. But "in the human life scale, you won't be seeing many changes," Ken Macdonald, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said to Daily Mail. "You'll be feeling earthquakes, you'll be seeing volcanoes erupt, but you won't see the ocean intrude in our lifetimes."
Even with the long timelines, scientists suggest that the rift is happening quicker than previously thought. Original estimates put a complete split at tens of millions of years from now. "With the continent dividing at a rate of half an inch per year, those estimations have sped up," said Unilad. MacDonald puts the timeline at between one million and five million years.
The split will change the world's continental makeup. "Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania and some parts of Ethiopia would form a new continent separated by the world's sixth ocean," said Metro. A change this drastic could have major implications for the region's biodiversity and ecosystem. Landlocked nations like Uganda and Zambia would gain coastlines which could influence weather patterns and climate. "This transformation could affect biodiversity, water resources and agricultural practices, posing both challenges and opportunities for the inhabitants of East Africa," said HowStuffWorks. In addition "the gradual separation might influence the continent's geopolitical landscape," and "create new opportunities for trade and communication."
A new continent is small potatoes in the context of Earth's geological history. All the continents were once a giant landmass known as Pangea, which then split off into the continents we know today. Only recently, scientists mapped the hidden continent of Zealandia located in the Southern Ocean. Africa's split "will be just another move in this giant geological playbook," said IFL Science. "Whether we as a species will survive for long enough to witness it? Well, that's a different story."
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