Africa Is Splitting into Two

Picture this: a colossal crevice suddenly appears beneath your house. What's your immediate reaction? Most likely, you'd gather your belongings and evacuate the premises. This scenario unfolded for a Kenyan resident in 2018, as an enormous crevice materialized practically overnight beneath his home. Fortunately, the man managed to escape unharmed, but the incident brought attention to a more profound issue.

This massive fissure emerged after a month of relentless rainfall in the region west of Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, situated in a seismically active area. Stretching for miles, the gaping hole was as wide as 65 feet in some places and as deep as the height of the Hollywood sign. Covered with ash from a nearby dormant volcano, locals dubbed it the "Grand Canyon." However, this was no laughing matter.

In 2023, a similar event occurred, prompting Kenya's Highway Authority to close a crucial road for repairs. Preliminary reports suggested heavy rains as the probable cause. The crevice is part of the Great Rift Valley, a geological feature extending from Jordan in the north to Mozambique in Eastern Africa. With a length nearly 1.5 times the distance from New York to Los Angeles, rift valleys form in areas where tectonic plates move apart.

The East African Rift, one of four major rifts globally, is influenced by the movement of the nearby Arabian plate, which has been in motion for the last 30 million years. The region's complex tectonic activity is reshaping the African continent, with the Nubian and Somali plates playing key roles. The eventual result will be the splitting of Africa into two subcontinents, separated by a new ocean.

The process of rifting is slow, occurring at a rate of about a quarter of an inch per year. Scientists estimate the split will happen in 5 to 10 million years, although some projections extend this timeline to 50 million years. This transformative event will not only create two African subcontinents but also provide coastlines to five currently landlocked countries, enabling them to build harbors for international trade.

Reflecting on Earth's geological history, the last significant continental shift occurred during the Jurassic period when the supercontinent Gondwana began to break apart. The Indian subcontinent's collision with the Asian mainland formed the Himalayan Mountain Range, a process still ongoing. Millions of years ago, South America drifted away from Africa, creating the South Atlantic Ocean.

The concept of continental drift, proposed in the 20th century, suggests that all Earth's continents were once part of a supercontinent called Pangaea. German scientist Alfred Wegener introduced this idea, noting how continents fit together like puzzle pieces. Pangaea existed around 200 million years ago and gradually separated, leading to the current configuration of continents.

Throughout Earth's history, supercontinents formed and broke apart multiple times. Examples include Rodinia, which existed a billion years ago, and Pannotia, approximately 600 million years ago. Tectonic activity, driven by movements in the Earth's outermost layer, continually shapes and reshapes the planet's surface.

In the present day, seafloor spreading occurs along underwater ridges, creating new oceanic crust. This process influences continental movement, with North America gradually moving away from Europe. Over the next 50 million years, this movement will bring the Americas into contact with western Asia, forming a new supercontinent called Amasia.

Geologists at Yale University conducted computer simulations to project Earth's appearance millions of years from now. According to their findings, Amasia is likely to form around the North Pole, but this transformation may unfold over an extensive timeframe, possibly spanning up to 200 million years into the future.