The earth is shaking under the African continent. Africa could split into two parts along a rift more than 3,200 kilometers long, forming a sixth ocean at the rupture site. And now scientists say this is happening much faster than previously thought.. Bild writes about this.

This is due to the displacement of tectonic plates that are in constant motion.. The first signs appeared back in 2005: a crack more than 50 kilometers long opened in the Ethiopian desert.. The next fault formed in Kenya in 2018: then a crack formed in the ground 15 meters deep, 20 meters wide and several kilometers long.

This is the great African Rift that began 30 million years ago.. The African Plate breaks on its eastern side and a new tectonic plate is created - the so-called Somali Plate. The consequences are now becoming increasingly evident on the surface of the Earth.

Until recently, scientists thought it would take 5 to 10 million years for a new continent to separate from the megafault, but recent evidence suggests it's happening much faster..

Cynthia Ebinger, a geoscientist at Tulane University in New Orleans, believes that Africa will split apart within a million years, and maybe much faster..

She explains that a major seismic event, such as an earthquake, can speed up this process, although accurately predicting such events remains challenging. And even if in human time all this seems extremely long, in geology it happens quickly.

Every year the crack widens by 0.8–2.5 centimeters. Somalia, Ethiopia, Tanzania and half of Kenya will eventually form a huge island off the coast of Africa. On the other hand, landlocked states such as Zambia and Uganda will have coastline on the new ocean.

In 2023, a study by scientists at the American Virginia Tech University confirmed the theory that the crack was caused by huge flows of magma under the earth's crust..

Using a computer model, it was calculated that the displacement of tectonic plates can be traced back to the so-called African superplume. A mantle plume is a hot mantle flow that moves from the base of the mantle at the Earth's core to the Earth's surface.. So, one of the huge plumes feeds the volcanoes and geysers in Yellowstone.

So-called mantle plumes have repeatedly caused volcanic eruptions around the world, superplumes are an even larger variant and, thanks to their mass and heat, can also influence climate and tectonic movements - as is now under Africa.

Let us recall that earlier scientists warned that a powerful volcanic eruption will occur on Earth this century with a probability of one in six, and “humanity has no plan to prevent it.”. Similar eruptions in the past have caused dramatic climate change and destroyed civilizations.