Geologists have concluded that Africa could fragment sooner than estimatedafter detecting that an active fault in the east of the continent has reached a critical threshold. The process still it will take millions of yearsbut in geological terms it represents a significant acceleration towards the formation of a new ocean.
The study focused on the East African Rift System, where the African plate divides between the Nubian plate and the Somali plate. The researchers looked in particular at the Turkana Rift zone, which spans Kenya and Ethiopia, using seismic measurements to determine the thickness of the Earth’s crust in that area, reports RT.
«We have discovered that the fracture in this area is more advanced and the crust is thinner than anyone had recognized,» explained Christian Rowan, a geoscientist at Columbia University. «East Africa is further along the fragmentation process than previously thought,» he added.
The data reveal that the crust at the center of the rift is only about 13 kilometers thick, far below the more than 35 kilometers recorded at the edges of the system. According to Rowan, when the thickness falls below about 15 kilometers, it enters a phase of narrowing, in which continental breakup becomes practically inevitable, he indicates. RT.
«The thinner the crust becomes, the weaker it becomes, which contributes to continued crack formation,» Rowan said.
Scientists say that in a few million years, the region will enter the oceanization phase, when magma will rise, cool, and will form a new sea basin connected to the Indian Oceana process that is already beginning to be observed in the Afar depression, located in northeast Africa, near the Red Sea.
GML
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