Geologists now have evidence Africa is physically splitting into two continents

A large recess, stretching several kilometres, made a terse melody recently in south-western Kenya. The tear, which continues to growth, caused portion of the Nairobi-Narok highway to collapse and was in the middle of seismic ruckus in the area.

The Earth is an ever-varying planet, even even if in some respects modify might be almost unnoticeable to us. Plate tectonics is a friendly example of this. But every portion of now and yet again again something dramatic happens and leads to renewed questions roughly the African continent splitting in two.

The Earths lithosphere (formed by the crust and the upper portion of the mantle) is broken happening into a number of tectonic plates. These plates are not static, but panic relative to each added at changing speeds, gliding on summit of a viscous asthenosphere.

Exactly what mechanism or mechanisms are at the past their painful is yet debated, but are likely to put in convection currents within the asthenosphere and the forces generated at the boundaries in the midst of plates.



These forces show not clearly concern the plates on the subject of, they can moreover cause plates to crack, forming a rift and potentially leading to the trigger of out of the unidentified plate boundaries. The East African Rift system is an example of where this is currently up.The East African Rift Valley stretches beyond 3,000km from the Gulf of Aden in the north towards Zimbabwe in the south, splitting the African plate into two unequal parts: the Somali and Nubian plates.

Activity along the eastern branch of the rift valley, presidency along Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania, became evident gone the large crack tersely appeared in south-western Kenya.Why does rifting happen?When the lithosphere is subject to a horizontal extensional force it will stretch, becoming thinner. Eventually, it will fracture, leading to the formation of a rift valley.

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