Africa may split
Volcanic activity may split the African continent in two owing to a recent geological crack in northeastern Ethiopia, researchers said..
The 60-kilometre split in the Afar region, which was the result of two volcanic eruptions in September 2005, has enabled scientists to further examine the earth’s tectonic movements, said a report published in the Geophysical Research Letters.
“The significance of the finding is that a huge magnetic deformation can happen within a few days like in oceans,” Atalay Arefe, an Ethiopia-based university professor who was part of the study, said.
Researchers say faults and fissures, which occur deep down on the ocean floor, are the processes by which continents gradually break off from each other. — AFP
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