Africa may split into 2 continents in the next 50 million years
Following a period of heavy rain and seismic activity in early April, a massive crack appeared in Narok County, Kenya, splitting the Nairobi-Narok highway apart.
The new fissure in the African soil, as with other similar spots in the region, serves as a present day reminder that a new continent may be born in the next 50 million years.
The crack, which measures 65 feet wide in spots and has a depth of nearly 50 feet, is part of the Great Rift Valley, according to local news source, the Daily Nation.
“The valley has a history of tectonic and volcanic activities,” geologist David Adede told the Daily Nation.
The Great Rift Valley stretches from the Horn of Africa to Mozambique.
Places where the earth's crust has formed deep fissures and the plates have begun to move apart develop rift structures in which elongate blocks have subsided relative to the blocks on either side. The East African Rift is a world-famous example of such rifting. (Image/NASA/JPL)
“Whereas the rift has remained tectonically inactive in the recent past, there could be movements deep within the Earth’s crust that have resulted in zones of weakness extending all the way to the surface,” he said.
According to Adede, the region's heavy rains were also likely responsible for exposing the crack, as they washed away deposits of volcanic ash from nearby Mt. Longonot, which had previously served as filler.
The crack itself is a result of the East African Rift, a 3,700-mile-long stretch of eastern Africa where Earth's Somali and Nubian tectonic plates are rifting, or slowly moving apart from one another.
Earth's lithosphere, or crust and upper mantle, consists of massive tectonic plates that are gliding over top of a thin, heated layer of viscous rock called the asthenosphere.
The East African Rift also consists of two smaller systems called the Gregory Rift and the Western Rift, according to National Geographic.
The movement of the planet's tectonic plates have given rise to mountain ranges, volcanoes and even the current position and shape of the Earth's continents.
Eventually, over the course of 50 million years, Africa may split into two continents as a result of the ongoing separation of the Somali and Nubian plates, according to scientists.
"Four countries in the Horn of Africa, Somalia and half of Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania are expected to split from Africa to form a new continent," the Daily Nation reported.
According to Royal Holloway, University of London researcher Lucia Perez Diaz, the rift will split apart at different rates.
"To the south, where the rift is young, extension rates are low and faulting occurs over a wide area. Volcanism and seismicity are limited," Diaz wrote in a report from the Conversation.
In the meantime, there is not much the Kenya National Highways Authority can do in the region but fill in many of the cracks and gullies with concrete and rocks, according to the local news report. However, this is only a temporary solution.
“You cannot stop a geological process because it occurs from deep within the crust of the Earth,” one highway official told the Daily Nation, adding that additional geologic studies need to be conducted in the area to identify potential hazards to infrastructure.
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