viral news in social media Africa splitting

In some time, Africa will crack in the middle, which will divide it into two parts and there will be a new ocean in the middle. Geologists are also linking it to an incident that happened around 140 to 180 million years ago, when the whole world must have been one. Slowly, the movement inside the earth increased and continents started forming. There were oceans in between them.

There is constant movement inside the earth. These movements decide whether there will be land on the top, or water or something else. Now geologists believe that something big is happening in Africa. This study was published in the science journal Geophysical Research Letters, which is giving the theory of Africa’s division. Actually, a several kilometer long crack has appeared near Kenya’s Nairobi-Narok highway. Earlier, a long crack was also seen in Ethiopia’s Afar region in the year 2005. Then, within just 10 days, the crack had become about 56 kilometers long.

Geologists believe that this is the beginning of the African continent splitting into two parts. Usually such a change takes a long time but right now it seems that the situation will change soon.

This has happened before as well

When maps were being made for the first time in the world, tourists, who were also scientists, noticed a special thing. They found that many far-flung continents and countries had many similarities. For example, the south-western part of the African continent and the north-eastern part of South America looked similar. It was found that if they were connected to each other, they would fit in the groove. Scientists began to speculate that maybe there was a flood and two continents were formed, but the theory did not get much attention then.

How would the change have happened?

Much later, during the fifties, a technique called magnetic survey was developed. This was used to detect the activities inside the earth, which was named – Plate Tectonics Theory. According to this, if the earth is seen after removing the sea from it, then the earth is divided into some plates. These plates keep moving forward. Their speed is different. The movement in them is responsible for earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. At many places, there is more movement in the plates, these are the same places which are said to be sensitive to natural disasters.

The places where tectonic plates are moving apart are called Rift Valley. In Africa, the plates are moving so far away that it is being considered as the Great Rift Valley in geology.

The world kept getting divided

After the development of this technology, geologists started understanding how the earth would have been divided into different continents. About 180 million years ago, there was a supercontinent named Gondwana. It included big continents like Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica. In the Jurassic period, the western part of Gondwana (Africa and South America) got separated from the eastern part. After this, about 140 million years ago, Africa and South America also got divided, which led to the formation of the Atlantic Ocean. Around this time, India, which was connected to Madagascar, separated from Australia and Antarctica, and the Indian Ocean came in between. Later, all the other changes took place and the world became what we know today.

How long will it take for Africa to split into two?

Although this process is happening very fast, it will still take millions of years. Currently, according to estimates, this can happen within about 5 to 10 million years. Due to this, Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania will separate from the rest of the continent. There will be sea between the two parts. It is also possible that many of these will become island countries, but at present it is difficult to say anything.

What can happen after this?

Some part of Ethiopia’s desert area is below sea level. A very small land strip separates it. As the rift expands, sea water will keep filling it. This will create a new sea, which will push the sub-Somalian plate away. In this way Somalia, South Ethiopia, Kenya etc. will separate.