Giant Crack In Africa Will Likely Create A New Ocean, Say Scientists

LiveScience:

A 35-mile rift in the desert of Ethiopia will likely become a new ocean eventually, researchers now confirm.

The crack, 20 feet wide in spots, opened in 2005 and some geologists believed then that it would spawn a new ocean. But that view was controversial, and the rift had not been well studied.

Read the whole story: LiveScience

Comments

[RTIII]

This HAS happened to Africa before - South America and Africa were formerly together, just _exactly_ where it looks like they fit together. It was indeed a case of the creation of an ocean basin.
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[FirstShirt]

I was going to make a vulgar remark about giant cracks in Africa but I am above that kind of shallow attempts at humor so I won't do it.

[LITU]

Giant crack - I dated her once.

[hottingers]

Everyone has....................that's why it's giant.

[GorillaThriller]

I'm really confused by the picture in the main article (at Live Science). That crack is 35 miles long but only 25 feet wide? Is there some major optical illusion going on in the picture?

[Principaldad]

Now available from Amazon, the new George Strait song, "I've Got Some Ocean Front Property in Ethiopia".

[Sing Out and Slap Iron]

Y'all know that California is going to do this in a few million years too, right?

[RTIII]

No, it isn't.

CA is on two different plates and they're sliding past one another with the NA plate holding almost steady and the NP plate sliding northward with a slight subduction at the joint going on at the north end - a REDUCTION in ocean, not spreading.
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[hottingers]

A giant crack in Africa? Don't worry, Madonna only goes there to buy kids. She will be back in the USA soon.

[wadenelson1]

Plumbers worldwide are demanding the new ocean be named for them.

[Sing Out and Slap Iron]

Oy. How big must the underwear be? Whoof!

[Tyler-Durden]

this is EXCELLENT. we need a new ocean to pollute now that the pacific is full of plastic. good timing, Earth!

[vippy]

Hurry, maybe we can stop it with Cap & Tax! Like we can change the weather pattern or anything else.
But we can clean up our garbage, let us start there and then address the population explosion. Poor Mother Earth cannot feed so many nor get rid of the waste!

[evonet]

My backyard has a pile of dirt that might become a continent... or new planet.

[FrTown]

The crack may lead to a river if it reaches the Black Sea. Maybe even a sea on its own; But an ocean? Come on!

[Sing Out and Slap Iron]

Red Sea Mr. Geography, Red Sea!

[FrTown]

Culpa mia. Thanks

[zizyphus]

Well, as I had just read:

http://halfpasthuman.com/RadioSpecial.html

before seeing this article about the Afar rift...I don't know...surely it is the farthest out fringe of the fringe stuff but, on the other hand...I guess time will tell. Keep those mountain tops in sight, just in case.

[kareemachan]

Well, duh. Plate tectonics kinda work that way: they move towards each other, you get mountains eventually. They move apart and you get giant cracks and maybe oceans.

[Chuckwheat]

So far, it's maybe/maybe not.