Giant Crack in Africa Will Create a New Ocean

Have you always wanted to have ocean-front property but could never afford it?  Perhaps you should buy some land in Ethiopia.

A 35-mile giant crack in Africa will create a new ocean, according to researchers.

The crack, which is 20 feet wide in certain areas, began opening up in 2005.  At the time, some experts thought it might turn into a new ocean, but the idea was scoffed at.

Now, a new study reveals that the processes involved in forming the rift are almost identical to those that take place at the bottom of oceans, further confirming that a new ocean is looming in the future.

Amazingly, the same rift activity is slowly causing the Red Sea to part, no Moses required.

The African plates and Arabian plates converge in the Afar desert region of Northern Ethiopia and have been spreading apart in a rifting process at speeds of less than 1 inch per year for the past 30 million years.

This rifting is what caused the formation of the 186-mile Afar depression and the Red Sea.

It looks like the Red Sea will eventually pour into the new sea in a million years or so.

So buy up that Ethiopian property.  It will have lots and lots of time to appreciate.

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• Giant Rift In Africa Will Create a New Ocean (science.slashdot.org)