Is Africa Splitting in Half? Scientists Think It’s Happening and an Ocean Is Forming in the Middle

Amaze Lab

Africa, the world’s second largest continent, is going through a breakup. Scientists say it’s splitting into two land masses, with a new ocean one day running through the middle.

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00:00Africa, the world's second-largest continent, is going through a breakup.

00:08Scientists say it's splitting into two land masses, with a new ocean one day running through

00:12the middle.

00:14As reported by IFL Science, the process won't happen overnight.

00:17It'll take somewhere between 5 and 10 million years for the East African Rift System, which

00:22stretches through multiple countries, to cleave the continent in two, resulting in Africa's

00:26eastern shoulder breaking off to become a new island.

00:30According to a 2004 study, the Nubian and Somalian African plates are pulling away from

00:34each other at a rate of a few millimeters each year.

00:38In 2018, news of a crack opening up in Kenya went viral, with some claiming the process

00:42was happening before our eyes.

00:45However, the rift was likely a localized expression of regular geological activity that has been

00:50going on for some 25 million years, IFL Science reports.

00:54As with the process which saw Pangaea split apart into the continents we know today, the

00:58surface of the world is in a constant state of flux.

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