It’s Finally Happening! Africa Is Splitting Into Two Continents.

New photographs have shown just how deep the damage is, as parts of Africa are physically splitting apart.

Scientists say that Africa is peeling into two parts, eventually leading to the formation of a new ocean and the rise of a new continent.

While this process will take millions of years to complete, it will split present-day Somalia and parts of Kenya, Ethiopia, and Tanzania from the rest of the continent.

This radical change in Earth’s landscape will come with many consequences, both positive and disruptive, and only time will tell if humans will be around to witness the major changes it will cause.

Today, let’s explore what the world will look like after the great big rift millions of years into the future.

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To grasp the formidable truth about this occurrence, we first need to understand how and why Africa is splitting in two.

The phenomenon responsible for tearing apart the continent is called rifting.

It occurs when a single tectonic plate rips apart into two or more tectonic plates, separated by divergent plate boundaries.

This phenomenon can be traced back at least 138 million years, when South America and Africa were divided into different continents.

If you look at the west coast of Africa and the east coast of South America, you’ll notice they fit together like two jigsaw pieces, beautifully highlighting how these continents were once joined as one.

For the last 30 million years, the Arabian plate has been drifting away from Africa—a process that resulted in the creation of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The colossal breakup of the future is associated with the East African Rift system, a 56-kilometer (35-mile) long crack that emerged in Ethiopia’s desert in 2005.

It is one of the largest rifts in the world, stretching downward for thousands of kilometers through several countries in Africa, including Ethiopia, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi, and Mozambique.

This rift will set off the formation of the world’s sixth ocean.

Seismic data shows that the formation of the rift was triggered by similar tectonic processes that are taking place at the bottom of the ocean.

The crack was discovered at the border of three tectonic plates: the African Nubian, African Somali, and Arabian plates, which have already been separating for some time.

Spanning over 3,000 kilometers, the East African Rift Valley lies from the Gulf of Aden in the north to Zimbabwe in the south.

It divides the African plate into two parts: the Somali and Nubian plates.

Though the process of rifting has been happening for some time, the potential split made headlines worldwide for the first time when a large crack in the canyon Rift Valley emerged in 2018.

According to scientists, the great split won’t happen anytime soon.

The Arabian plate is shifting away from Africa at a rate of one inch per year.

It will take millions of years for Africa to be sliced into two unequal parts.

The new ocean will take at least 5 million to 10 million years to form, which could eventually give a few landlocked countries in Africa their own coastlines.

Now, assuming that millions of years down the line, nation-states will still exist in the form they do now, here’s what we expect would happen.

Six landlocked countries—namely Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, and Zambia—would inadvertently find themselves with coastlines.

The smaller continent created by the rift will include countries such as present-day Somalia, parts of Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Tanzania, and Mozambique.

However, according to geologists, the smaller of the emerging continents may drift away from the rest of the continent depending on how the rift happens.

There is the possibility of new nations forming, old nations merging, or completely breaking apart.

Geologists predict that Madagascar will itself break apart into smaller islands.

Quite possibly, the new ocean that may arise in another 5 or 10 million years will be named the African Ocean, and the world will have a new and eighth continent.

A new coastline just in their front yard would cost the countries millions of dollars in evacuation, but it would come with huge advantages.

The previously landlocked countries would now have access to the sea, leading to a reduction in international logistical expenses and the creation of shipping and fishing industries that did not exist before.

These countries would build harbors that would connect them to the rest of the world directly.

It is to be noted that the Democratic Republic of Congo has a tiny sliver of Atlantic coastline, but it remains in use.

Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi have largely relied on Kenya’s Indian Ocean port of Mombasa and Tanzania’s port of Dar es Salaam for their sea freight and transportation.

With access to the sea, it also means the countries can finally be directly connected to global trade routes, facilitating economic growth.

The rise of new coastlines would be a monumental shift, turning once landlocked nations into major players in the global economy.

However, the challenges would be enormous, from the massive cost of relocation to the infrastructural upheaval required to build the necessary ports and trade networks.

But as the rift widens and the ocean slowly forms, Africa’s coastlines will transform into something new, reshaping the continent for millions of years to come.