New Ocean in Africa

Earth Science is a topic that is discussed a lot in the news since it is important for us to understand what is happening on our planet. One recent finding of earth scientists relates to what we have learned in class about seafloor spreading and tectonic plates. Researchers believe that the 35 mile rift in the Ethiopian desert will likely become a new ocean. This rift, twenty feet wide in spots opened in 2005. The process that is creating this rift is the exact same process that occurs on the ocean floor. The main cause of this 35 mile rift is volcanic activity. In class we learned how volcanic activity and tectonic plates are related. In this particular case, a volcano on the northern end of the rift, Dabbahu, erupted causing magma to be pushed up through the middle of the rift area and separating the land in both directions. This development shows that highly active volcanic boundaries along the edges of tectonic ocean plates could suddenly break apart in large sections rather than small bits as previously believed. Researchers have determined that the events occurring in Ethiopia are similar to the events that occur on the bottom of the ocean floor. Since the two processes are analogous then the rift in Ethiopia could serve as an ocean rift lab. We learned about seafloor spreading or rifting in class. Sea floor spreading is a process in which new sea floor is created by magma intrusions into the sea floor. This process occurs along divergent plate boundaries. The African and Arabian plates meet in the remote Afar desert of Northern Ethiopia at a divergent plate boundary. At this boundary, the plates have been moving apart at a speed of less than one inch per year for the past 30 million years. This rifting is responsible for the formation of the Red Sea. Researchers believe that the Red Sea will eventually flow into the newly created rift in about one million years. This would create a new ocean that would connect the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. This rift is something that scientists will continue to monitor and try to predict what will happen in the future.