Discover! >> Scientists Warn One Of The Continents Is Breaking Apart At Double Speed

Scientists have warned that Africa is breaking apart faster than previously thought. A 35-mile-long fissure in Ethiopia’s desert emerged in 2005 but has since been widening at a rate of half an inch per year.

Researchers previously believed the split would take tens of millions of years, but Ken Macdonald, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told DailyMail.com that it would likely happen within one to five million years.

The separation would also create a new ocean and continent on Earth. ‘What might happen is that the waters of the Indian Ocean would come in and flood what is now the East African Rift Valley,’ Macdonald said.

Macdonald added that the new ocean could become as deep as the Atlantic if waters continue to flow into the area.

The crack stretches through Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania and half of Ethiopia, which the professor said would become a new continent called the ‘Nubian continent’. While the two parts are drifting at an extremely slow pace, Macdonald said that it is impressive given the massive size of Africa.

This region is home to two tectonic plates, the Somali and Nubian, that are actively moving away from each other.

The Earth’s lithosphere, formed by the crust and the upper part of the mantle, is divided into several tectonic plates. But the mechanisms behind the movements have yet to be uncovered.

Some researchers speculate the mechanism is slow, circular movements of partially molten rock caused by heat rising from the Earth’s core.

Regardless, the movement of plates is what’s happening in the East African Rift System.