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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."
Can't predict with any degree of certainty wether it will rain or snow a few days from now but they can predict that a crack in the ground now will form an ocean in a million years. In the middle of a desert. Ok.
All that water from melting glaciers has to go somewhere.
i wonder if the Island of Madagascar got its start this way, if you look at it like a jigsaw puzzle it would fit right in to the east coast of the continent Africa
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
That is not too far from the truth. There is so much grant money, and it is so easy to get. There is a lot of red tape, and paperwork, but once you learn the system, you can have a nice stream of never-ending cash for whatever research you wish.
After seeing others get grants, I think I want to go back to university and get a Ph.D. in sociology. I'll do my Ph.D. on the effects of having a million dollar trust fund and driving a ferrari. Now I just need to fill out that application for the grant.
splitting at about 0.8 inches per year, would eventually lead to Ethiopia eastern portions becoming an island in a million years or so
And by then the sun might supernova because someone else got a grant before yours. They wanted to fly a nuclear powered research starship into the center of the sun. *KABOOM*.
The only cool thing about this new water source is, will it create land that can support growing food? If the anwser is yes, then it will be a blessing, even if all we get today is a river a few meters wide.
I wonder if this event will help provide some clue as to what is driving the plate motions.
When I last had lectures in a subject that had to do with plate-tectonics (~1 year ago) there still wasn't any theory that could "give" enough force to create the plate motions that are observed today and should have happened in the past (at least to the knowledge of my professor).
For example India should have stopped it's northwards motion long ago but it is still not moving it's way northwards into Eurasia.
that wasn't the point. The point is this: 7000 years ago, who would have thought that their lives would be regarded as something that never happen by their descendands only 7000 years later. But here we go. There are people who don't believe that people existed 7000 years ago.
That is the point. 10^6 earth years from now, there will be someone, who in his(her) infinite pride and stupidity will declare that this planet is only 6000 years old (an arbitrary number, but why not?) And there will be people who will follow these believes in the same fanatic state of mind, as they do today.
You can't handle the truth.
How will this affect the climate, assuming it does become an ocean? I know humans probably won't exist by then.