'Strange mushroom-shaped object' is rising, splitting an Earth continent in two

Geophysicists have found a surprising reason why a famous continental rift is rapidly widening.

According to Live Science , the "strange object" is a giant mushroom-shaped cluster of superheated rock growing from near the Earth's core. This "mushroom" has grown so large that it is deforming the Earth's surface, and in the future will tear Africa in two along a long line from the Red Sea to Mozambique.

The above results come from research by geophysicist D. Sarah Stamps from Virginia Tech (USA) and colleagues, through 12 years of examinations of the East African Great Rift Valley .

Part of the East African Great Rift Valley, spanning several countries - (Photo: LIVE SCIENCE).

This valley has long been known as a giant crack in the Earth, where the giant continent will split in two in the future. But what drives this crack remains speculative.

In the new study, the authors found that in addition to the known east-westward-moving perpendicular deformation, there is also deformation parallel to the fault , moving northward. These surface movements are unusual and have never been observed elsewhere.

This anomaly led to a hidden structure inside - a giant and deadly "mushroom" - emerging from the Earth's mantle (the layer just below the planet's crust).

The "mushroom" is a giant mantle plume , previously associated with a "smaller" type of geological activity , such as volcanoes.

The new findings suggest that mantle plumes also play a major role in the "morphing" of Earth's continents, a process largely driven by plate tectonics. Plate tectonics is when pieces of the planet's crust move, sliding over each other and carrying the continents and oceans above them.