🌅 Africa Is Rifting and Birthing a New Ocean

SOURCE

Watts et al. (2025)

WHAT TO KNOW

• Researchers at Swansea University in the U.K. found a plume of molten rock is pulsing upward beneath eastern Africa in a constant flow of rhythmic surges, slowly splitting the continent apart and likely marking the birth of a sixth ocean some 5 million to 10 million years from now. The pulses—which the researchers liken to a “beating heart”—are closely tied to the overlying tectonic plates in the region and play a key role in the rifting of the African continent.

WHY IT MATTERS

• The Afar region, which covers northeastern Ethiopia, is one of the few places on Earth where three pieces of the planet’s crust meet (called a “triple junction”). As the pieces float on the Earth’s molten mantle, the crust is stretched and pulled apart until it finally ruptures. That rupture marks the beginning of a new ocean basin.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• The East African Rift began forming some 30 million years ago as the African plate began splitting into two, known as the Nubian and Somalian plates. The rifting gave rise to the African Great Lakes region, which is home to some of the largest lakes on Earth, holding roughly 25% of all unfrozen surface fresh water on the planet and 10% of all freshwater fish species.