Signs Of Earth’s Sixth Ocean Revealed In Slow-Building Geological Shift

Some landlocked countries might gain their own coastlines!

Damjan

• Published in Interesting
• October 28, 2024

For as long as scientists have studied the Earth, they have known that the planet is constantly changing. Researchers uncover new insights into the daily physical processes shaping the land, sea, and sky. Recently, they’ve discovered something astonishing: the gradual birth of a new ocean.

This remarkable event occurs within the African continent, where shifting tectonic plates are causing East Africa to split apart. As these plates drift, researchers anticipate that countries like Zambia and Uganda, which are currently landlocked, may eventually gain coastlines.

The scientific community has long understood that Earth's surface is dynamic, consisting of large sections of rock known as tectonic plates. These plates float on the semi-fluid mantle below, and as they shift, they reshape the Earth's structure in subtle yet powerful ways.

Now, the movement of these tectonic plates in Africa is setting the stage for a significant geographic transformation. The discovery of this emerging ocean was reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, which described how the African continent is slowly splitting in half.

This rift is formed at the junction where the African, Arabian, and Somali tectonic plates meet. Over millions of years, the Arabian plate has gradually drifted away from the African plate. Similarly, the Somali plate is slowly peeling away from the rest of the continent, carving out a distinct divide in East Africa.

As the plates pull apart, they leave a gap in the Earth’s crust, creating a long rift valley that will one day fill with water to form an ocean. This rift is located along the East African Rift Valley, stretching across Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania.

Currently, this geological process is happening at an almost imperceptible rate, but scientists have the tools to measure these tiny movements.

A massive rift is forming across Africa.

With the advancement of GPS technology, studying tectonic movement in detail has become possible. GPS instruments are highly accurate and can detect shifts in the Earth’s crust as small as a few millimeters per year.

Marine geophysicist and University of California professor Ken Macdonald explains that GPS allows scientists to monitor the rate and direction of tectonic plate movements closely. With more measurements being collected each year, researchers are gaining a clearer understanding of the process.

McDonald's has shared that this transformation in East Africa may eventually lead to the forming of a new ocean. As the rift widens, water from the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea will begin to pour into the Afar region in Ethiopia, flowing through the East African Rift Valley.

This will ultimately result in a vast body of water that could separate East Africa from the rest of the continent, creating a new ocean and an independent landmass.

Zambia, a landlocked country, might eventually gain a coastline.

While this transformation is underway, it’s crucial to understand that it will take millions of years. Tectonic plate movement is slow, and while a new ocean is forming, it will be millions of years before it fully materializes.

This slow but steady process gives us a rare glimpse into the gradual evolution of Earth’s surface. Scientists have known about the East African Rift Valley for some time, but the current data provided by GPS instruments has brought a new depth of understanding to their studies.

Using precise measurements has confirmed the long-held theory that East Africa could eventually split from the main continent. Such an event would profoundly impact the geography, ecosystems, and even climates of the region. However, the accurate scale of these changes will likely remain invisible within a single human lifetime.

Damjan