Scientists Say a Sixth Ocean Is Forming as East Africa Splits Apart | In East Africa, tectonic forces are slowly splitting the continent, creating a future ocean basin.

From the article: In the scorching deserts of East Africa, the ground is slowly tearing itself apart — a slow-motion, geological drama. Over millions of years, the African continent will cleave in two, and scientists say a new ocean will one day fill the gap.

The Afar region is most famous for being one of the hottest and most inhospitable places on Earth. But for geologists, what’s more interesting is what lies beneath the scorching ground. The Afar sits at the crossroads of three tectonic plates — the Nubian, Somali, and Arabian — which are gradually pulling away from one another. This process, known as rifting, is reshaping the landscape and offering scientists a rare opportunity to study how continents split and oceans are born.

“This is the only place on Earth where you can study how continental rift becomes an oceanic rift,” Christopher Moore, a Ph.D. student at the University of Leeds, who uses satellite radar to monitor the region’s volcanic activity, told NBC.

The Afar region is home to the East African Rift Valley, a massive crack in the Earth’s surface that stretches through Ethiopia and Kenya. In 2005, a 35-mile-long fissure opened in the Ethiopian desert, a dramatic reminder of the forces at work beneath the surface.

“The violent split was equivalent to several hundred years of tectonic plate movement in just a few days,” said Cynthia Ebinger, a geophysicist at Tulane University who has spent years studying the region.

Ebinger’s research suggests that the rifting process isn’t always smooth. Instead, it can be punctuated by sudden, explosive events. She likens the process to overfilling a balloon: “We’re trying to understand the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”

Not exactly new news? I learned that in school in the 90’s.