Researcher warns that Africa is breaking apart at double pace as new oceans arise…

Africa is progressively splitting in two, forming a new ocean.

While we originally learned about it two decades ago, experts now warn that the continent will divide far faster than previously thought.

Why is Africa splitting?

The East African Rift, a 35-mile-long rift in Ethiopia’s desert, opened up in 2005. It signaled the beginning of a protracted process in which the African plate splits into two tectonic plates: the Somali Plate and the Nubian Plate.

The crack is located on the boundaries of the African, Arabian, and Somali tectonic plates. Over the past 30 million years, the Arabian plate has been gradually migrating away from the African continent.

This identical tectonic shift has already occurred, and it is responsible for forming the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden between the two linked landmasses.

Furthermore, the Somali plate is migrating away from the African plate, peeling its way through the East African Rift Valley.

Geologists believe that this intricate tectonic process will create space for a completely new body of water millions of years from now.

How rapidly is Africa dividing?

The process was originally supposed to take tens of millions of years, but with the continent separating at a rate of half an inch per year, those estimates have accelerated.

Professor Ken MacDonald of the University of California predicts that a new ocean will form between one and five million years from now.

Speaking to MailOnline, he stated, “On the human life scale, there will be little changes. You’ll feel earthquakes and witness volcanoes erupt, but the ocean will not intrude in our lives.”

What are the scientists saying?

Professor MacDonald went on to explain that the Indian Ocean floods may flow in and flood what is currently the East African Rift Valley.

He responded to the newspaper: “There’s slippage and faults creating earthquake activity, along with visible signs of active volcanoes.”In recent years, the biggest achievements have been determining precisely where the branches of this rift system travel.

Alexandra Doten, a former NASA and Space Force specialist, took to Instagram to describe how Eastern Africa will become its own continent in millions of years.

“The Great Lakes of Africa form the boundary. “These are some of the largest lakes on Earth,” she explained.

“This accounts for 25% of the planet’s unfrozen surface fresh water, and it already supports around 10% of all fish species.

“The lakes developed as Eastern Africa separated from the rest of the continent. The Somali plate is moving even further east, forming a massive rift valley right here. It continues to do so.

“Eventually, Eastern Africa will become its own continent, separated from the rest of Africa by a new ocean.”