Africa faces the risk of breaking in half: Cracks long thousands of meters are evidence

A giant crack, lasting thousands of meters, suddenly appeared in southwestern Kenya.

Earth is an ever-changing planet, although in some respects that change is not strong enough for us to notice. However, for scientists, geology is one of the areas worth noting because it is the way for them to "catch the pulse" of measuring the health of the Earth. Researching tectonic plates is a clear proof.

Below is a study by Lucia Perez Diaz, a postdoctoral research student, from the UK's leading research-intensive university - Truong Hoang Gia Holloway.

Africa faces the risk of breaking in half in the future?

Today's studies suggest that the supercontinent forms in cycles, merging and detaching by the motion of tectonic plates, with a period of approximately 250 million years.

And in Africa, the African array is moving, making this continent at risk of a double break in the future. Evidence is a large crack lasting thousands of meters that suddenly appeared in early 2018 in southwestern Kenya.

A large crack lasting thousands of meters suddenly appeared in early 2018 in southwestern Kenya.(Photos: Google Earth. Data SIO, NOAA, US Navy, NGA, GEBCO).

Initially, geologists identified, the occurrence of cracks related to tectonic activity along the East African Rift . However, after the research process, they think this is a stretch .

The question is why is this stretch forming in southwestern Kenya and its formation related to the East African extension zone? And does it contribute to accelerating the process of Africa breaking in half?

According to geologists' research, the East African extension zone is part of the Great Rift Valley , which is a growing stretch of boundary, stretching over 3,000km from the northern Gulf of Aden to southern Zimbabwe, dividing Africa into two equal parts: Somali and Nubian arrays .

The displacement speed of the African plate is estimated at 2.15cm / year. It has moved in the past 100 million years, in the direction of northeast.

Activities along the eastern branch of the Great Rift Valley (running along Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania) became ever more apparent when a large stretch of thousands of meters suddenly appeared in southwestern Kenya.

What scenario for Africa?

The displacement speed of the African plate is estimated at 2.15cm / year.(Photo: Discovery Channel).

The East African extension extends from the Afar junction in the Afar hammock through eastern Africa to the south. This is a stretch zone with abnormal activity on the oceanic crust in the world.

According to geologists' research, towards the Afar region, the entire valley of rift is covered with volcanic rock. This suggests that, in this area, the lithosphere has thinned to near complete breakage.

When this happens, a new ocean will begin to form by magma hardening in the space created by the fragments. Finally, after tens of millions of years, the spread of the seabed will progress along the entire length of the crack.

The ocean will enter and therefore the African continent will become smaller and will appear a large island in the Indian Ocean , including Ethiopia and Somalia, and also the Horn of Africa.

Why does stretching happen?

Lithosphere is the most outermost hard shell of rocky planets. On Earth, the lithosphere consists of the crust and the topmost layer of the mantle, with the most striking characteristic being drift.

When the lithosphere experiences a long horizontal force, it expands, becomes thinner. Finally, it will break, leading to the formation of a rift valley. This process is accompanied by surface expression along the valley that stretches in the form of volcanoes and seismic activity.

Image of East African Rift - brown.(Source: Creativecommons)

Rift valleys are the initial stage of a broken continent, and if successful, can lead to the formation of a new ocean basin.

A typical example of the continent's breaking up and formation of a new ocean basin on Earth is the South Atlantic region, the result of a double break of South America and Africa about 138 million years ago.

Up to now, due to the relentless movement, Earth's lithosphere has broken into 7 main geographical areas, including: Pacific Plate; Asia-Europe array; Indo-Australian Plate; Africa Plate; North America; South America; and Antarctic Plate.

Research published on The Convers.