Post date: Jan 31, 2012 1:49:24 PM
Over 150 scientists recently met in Ethiopia to discuss findings on East Africa's Rift Valley -- a linear shaped lowland between mountain ranges created by a geological fault. The latest findings show the process of new ocean formation.
LAKE BOGORIA, KENYA (REUTERS) - The great Rift Valley's fractured escarpments and lowlands cast volcanoes, steaming vents, lakes and pulsing hot springs.
The unique features of the rift which cuts from the Red Sea to Mozambique in the south eastern part of Africa have marvelled geologists for centuries, more so now when activities below ground are starting to show on the surface.
Scientists believe Africa will split in two in 5-10 million years time as tectonic plates around the rift move away from each other.
About 150 experts from around the world met in Addis Ababa Ethiopia recently to discuss the phenomenon and share latest findings on how the split will create a new ocean formation.
Dr. Tim Write, a scientist at the university of Leeds in the United Kingdom said the movement of plates, especially in Afar region of Ethiopia where it is faster, will change the continent's geography in millions of years to come.
"The Rift Valley in Ethiopia is opening at about 1 cm every year. In Afar it is a little bit faster; about 2 centimetres every year. So it is a little bit less than the speed your finger nails grow. It is a very very slow process in general but geologists have lots of time. So if we go on a million years then we end up at 10 kilometres at 1 centimetre every year. If you go on 5 to 10 million years, you start to really stretch the Rift Valley and eventually water will flood in, the eastern part of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa will split off and we will have new ocean material flooding in and Africa really will be split in two," he said at the meeting of scientists in Addis Ababa.
The conference was organised by the Afar Consortium, a group of Geologists that carry out continuous research on Afar, northern Ethiopia -- one of the earth's most active geological sites.
The scientists hope the research and findings shared at the meeting will help to mitigate volcanic hazards and prepare better for earthquakes, which are almost impossible to predict.
"So this helps us to expand our knowledge -- how to monitor and mitigate volcanic and earthquake hazards, but it is very difficult to predict. That is not possible. But still, we have found that how the magma behaves, how it cuts the continental crust, how it pushes apart and eventually that will lead in to the ocean formation process," said Dr. Atalay Ayele, a member of the Afar consortium.
"We are in an incredibly exciting place where three tectonic plates are all pulling apart and that's been causing, earthquakes and also big volcanic eruptions. The last six years have been particularly active, so what this meeting is about is bringing together local and international experts on the tectonics of Ethiopia and Africa in more general terms to understand how the earth is pulling apart and how that causes these eruptions and earthquakes," said Write.
Scientists from other parts of Africa, like Cameroon where the Mbere Rift Valley has similar characteristics to East Africa's Rift, were also at the meeting to gain more knowledge about magamatism, a process responsible for mountain formation from magma.