Tectonic plate shifts in Ethiopia show that the African continent is splitting in two – paving the way for Earth’s sixth ocean to emerge, according to researchers.
The shift between tectonic plates has been ongoing since the East African Rift – a 35-mile-long crack in Ethiopia’s desert – emerged in 2005.
The separation of the Somalian tectonic plate and the larger Nubian tectonic plate will effectively split the world’s second-largest continent in two – a phenomenon that hasn’t been observed in hundreds of millions of years when South America and Africa were divided into different continents.
A new ocean according to scientist, will be born along what is known as the East African Rift valley which stretch from Northern Ethiopia 🇪🇹 in the Afar region to Mozambique 🇲🇿 which will separate countries like Kenya 🇰🇪, Ethiopia 🇪🇹, Somalia & Tanzania 🇹🇿 from continental Africa while landlocked Zambia 🇿🇲 & Uganda 🇺🇬 will have a coastline & some parts of Northern Djibouti 🇩🇯 will be submerged under the ocean.
According to estimates it will take at least million to Billion years for the process to be completed.