Will Earth have a fifth Ocean? Expert: Africa is breaking up. The rift is 56 kilometers long

The introduction

The earth has a history of 4.6 billion years. The earth's crust changes or collisions will produce geographical changes. Mulberry fields can become the sea, mountains may become plains. Li Bai wrote in "Shu Road difficult": "the ground collapsed mountain destroy strong man died, and then the ladder stone stack linked." This is what happens when the earth's crust changes.

01

As we all know, the Earth is a better planet than Mercury, with most of its surface covered by water. There are seven continents and four oceans on the earth, and these landforms are the result of continuous changes in the earth's crust over time. The changes have not stopped yet, and in tens of millions of years, the earth will look very different from what it does now.

▲ The Earth in space

So it wouldn't be so surprising if scientists now found a possible fifth ocean. According to current research, a fifth ocean will form in five to ten million years. This time is a very long process for humans, but for earth, it is only a fleeting moment. And that's a lot less time than any other ocean on the planet has ever formed.

The fifth largest ocean on earth will form in East Africa. This new ocean will split Africa in two. Part of the current African continent will become an ocean. Geologists now predict that Ethiopia's Afar state will be the shoreline of a new ocean.

▲ Photos of cracks

Experts say Africa is indeed breaking up, with a fifty-six-kilometer rift. There was already a huge crack in the area in 2005, and it's gotten bigger over time. In addition, the crust movement in this area is relatively frequent. The total length of the crack has reached 56 kilometers. When this new ocean forms, there will be more oceans on the earth than there are now. Comparatively speaking, the space suitable for human existence would be smaller. In addition to humans, other creatures that live on land may also be affected.

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The climate around the new ocean would have changed dramatically, but since the new ocean formed millions of years later, it is impossible to predict how much the change would have affected humans, and indeed whether humans would have survived at that time.

▲ Photos of cracks

The big fissure here is the result of crustal movement, and it will become a new continent in the future when the continents and oceans are redivided. Based on current crustal movements, the new continents will take shape in about a million years. The shape of the African continent will be completely different. The Horn of Africa will be cut off from Africa, forming an eighth continent.

But other scholars disagree, arguing that the Earth is no longer in a period of intense crustal movement. Although the movement of the earth's crust has always been going on, it is now extremely slow and weak. Cindy Ebbinger, a geologist in the United States, believes that violent crustal movements have been occurring in present-day Africa, so the emergence of a new continent and a new ocean is very likely to occur in the next few million years.

▲ Local residents in front of the crack

But that prediction is only a prediction for modern humans, whose lifetime is far less than the earth's, and who knows for sure what the earth will look like in a million years. It is not unusual for the earth to give birth to new oceans or continents. What new worlds can be created in these places must be left to future human beings.

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In the long history of the earth, the earth's crust has been moving at all times. This can also be seen in some Chinese myths and legends. Ge Hong of the Jin Dynasty wrote in The Fairy Tales of Magu: "Since Magu said cloud, he has seen three mulberry fields in the East China Sea." At present, there are generally two theories about the movement of the earth's crust. One theory is the impact of foreign meteorites on the Earth. The other theory is that it has to do with what's going on inside the Earth. The earthquakes, volcanoes and oceans that are happening on earth are actually the result of the earth's crust.

▲ Ocean Photos

Human beings cannot control the movement of the earth, and with current science and technology, even predictions cannot be made with great accuracy. For the most part, the slow movement of the earth's crust does not have an obvious effect on human life in the short term. Every time the earth experiences a strong crustal movement, living creatures on the earth will usher in a new change.

Conclusion

Ground movement is a natural phenomenon that humans cannot stop or change. When the earth really began to change, the idea that "man can conquer nature" was a joke. Human beings are only the most intelligent creatures on earth, but far from the ruler of the planet. How to take care of the planet we live on is what people should be most concerned about.