The Press Stories
In one of the hottest places On earth The whole continent is slowly splitting.
As announced NBC News, In the Afar region, the Nubian, Somali, and Arabian tectonic plates slowly move away from each other, gradually forming a new ocean.
“We see the sea crust begin to form: it is very different from the continental crust in composition and density,” said Christopher Moore, a graduate student at the University of Leeds.
Observing the formation of a new ocean will give geologists an unprecedented opportunity to discover how such tectonic gaps occur. The Earth’s plates are constantly moving, but scientists still do not know what caused these three to move away from each other. Today, the most popular theory of this process is that massive, hot mantle rocks bubble at the confluence of three plates, but scientists insist that such ideas are difficult to prove.
However, during the observation of scientists, progress has been made. New satellite data helps researchers better understand this change:
“With GPS, you can measure speeds of up to a few millimeters a year. Getting more measurements from GPS – gives you a better idea of what’s going on,” commented Ken McDonald, one of the geologists.
Scientists now predict that a new sea will appear in Africa in 5-10 million years.
Remember it from the glacier In Antarctica, a glacier the size of London broke. The largest glacier at a distance of 1270 km broke the 150-meter-thick brand glacier shelf, and British Antarctic Service (PAS) scientists first discovered the development of large cracks in the ice.
