Slashdot Mirror
New Ocean being Formed in Africa
PenguinRadio writes "The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting on a 37-mile long fissure that split open in September in the Afar desert in Ethiopia that could be the start of a new ocean forming. The fissure, which grew 8 meters wide in 3 weeks following an earthquake on Sept 14, is now splitting at about 0.8 inches per year, would eventually lead to Ethiopia eastern portions becoming an island in a million years or so. The findings were presented at the American Geophysical Union meeting taking place in San Francisco this week. The BBC reports that formation of a ocean basin is the first step toward developing an ocean, but that it will be millions of years before that could occur."
It's easier to form a new ocean than it is to ask the company for a raise.
fast as fast can be. you'll never catch me.
Shall I tell my kids to bookmark this article then? Just in case they forget when it all started?
Hey I have some great Ocean View Property in the middle of Africa. Email me if you're interested.
Time to snap up some cheap ethiopian desert land. Will be valuable beachfront holiday developments in a few hundred millenia or so.
Oh no... it's the future.
Maybe we should hurry global warming along to melt the polar ice caps sooner so we have enough water to fill that new ocean.
Borrow money from a pessimist - they don't expect it back.
Where do I sign up for the $1 billion government grant to study this new "ocean"? Since it's going to take a while, I should build a nice palace -- uh, research station -- to observe this natural event.
God is obviously trying to cover up all those embarrassing hominid fossils he missed obliterating in the last flood.
"Even for Slashdot, that was a very obscure reference!" - Anonymous Coward
Today's swimming pool could turn into an ocean in a million years! Maybe a prophet or fortune teller could enlighten us further in subsequent comments?
This sig donated to Pater. Long live
New Oceanfront Property for sale in the middle of the Afar Desert. Don't miss this Once in a Lifetime long-term Investment Opportunity! Timeshare opportunities also available. Check out our Brochure!
And now back to natural disasters.
Three Days Before the Fissure Formed:
Ghost of Haile Selassie: Oh Lord, restore my home. Allow them access to the sea, that they might flourish again.
God: Sure thing, mac.
Three Days After:
God: Happy yet?
Ghost: I meant give us back Eritrea!
God: That'll teach you to pray
Obviously what we need, is lot's of skyscrapers around the fold.
If anything, the Parent post is +10 Funny. But moderating it as a TROLL? WOW. KANSAS, Here we come!
"What drives plate motions?"
Seeing they collide a lot, my first answer would be: women.
I've been wrong before though.
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway. -- Andrew S. Tanenbaum
I left my garden hose turned on -- the knob broke and I cannot turn it off. My lawn is growing squishier at an unknown rate but the squishiness is definitely increasing. In millions of years it may be enough to form the start of an ocean. During my lifetime I think I can get away with rubber boots, but future generations will need hip waders.
Yes, Lex Luthor! Look for the secret map with Costa Del Lex, Luthorville, Marina del Lex, Otisburg, etc ...
There's a new TV series out this season, called "Surface", that describes what's going on in Ethiopia. Eventually the big green creatures will make themselves known and it will all become obvious.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
I got slapped last time I said that to a girl.
in about a million years.
Later.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
A new ocean, you say? Jeepers, what's wrong with the oceans you've already got? You've got hot ones and cold ones and windy ones and... sheesh! Back in my day, we only had one ocean, and we all had to share it - 'cept for the Lankowitz kid. Never could be too sure about him. And it was small. Couldn't barely fit a ship into it. But did we complain? Hell no! Just made a canoe out of a hollowed out log and called it the Titanic. And we liked it that way. Didn't have no ice to sink it with, neither. Had to use up our only glacier just to keep the drinks cold in the summer time.
But we never complained. We was proud then, didn't take guff from nobody. Why I remember when the bank came to repossess our desert. Fine desert it was. Some of the best damn Gila monsters ever came outa there. Craftsmanship, that's what we called it. But the bank didn't care. I still remember my pappy standing there with a big timber from our rain forest in his hand, telling that fat-ass banker that he'd come for the wrong desert.
Ocean! Feh! You kids don't even know what an ocean is any more. Buncha perfectly good ones here, and you still need another. Crybabies waste all the cod in one and then it's 'wah wah wah, gimme 'nother ocean!'
Tell yer mother to fetch me 'nother glass of my rheumatism medicine, boy. All this talk 'bout oceans is making me tetchy.
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.