Birth of a New African Ocean

Khemisty writes "Formation of an ocean is a rare event, one no scientist has ever witnessed. Yet this geophysical nativity is unfolding today in one of the hottest and most inhospitable corners of the globe. Africa is splitting apart at the seams. From the southern tip of the Red Sea southward through Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique, the continent is coming unstitched along a zone called the East African Rift." This stretching of the earth's crust has been going on for 20 million years, and within another 10 million the Red Sea will have broken through to create a new sea.

Comments

Red Sea tag suggestion:

[FooAtWFU]

blamemoses.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[idiotnot]

No, it's global warming's fault.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Anonymous Coward]

blamemoses.

Very true. How could this have been forming over the last 20,000,000 years when the earth is only 6,000 years old?

--
McCain/Palin '08!

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[mR.bRiGhTsId3]

Yes, everything is global warming's fault. Why, we should even blame those carbon-booted fiends for when everything is just right and we have nothing to complain about.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Anonymous Coward]

no, it's bush's fault!

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey now, this is still Slashdot. It's Microsoft's fault.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Anonymous Coward]

I hope you're being sarcastic...The earth is accepted by scientists to be 4.5 billion years old.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[kakofb]

But it's accepted by Christians to be like 6000 years old. Seriously. They think that dinosaurs and humans coexisted.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Anonymous Coward]

Some Christians.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Anonymous Coward]

But it's accepted by Christians to be like 6000 years old.

And`I agree, it must be at least 6,000 years old.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Anonymous Coward]

But it's accepted by Christians to be like 6000 years old.

Seriously. They think that dinosaurs and humans coexisted.

Are there more of those types of Christians, or are there more "progressives" who believe in crap like astrology?

While there are loons all over the place, I'd rather deal with loons who are mistaken over how things were in the past than with loons who are loony over the present and most importantly the future.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Anonymous Coward]

You still have it wrong. According to Twitter, it is M$'s fault. *me ducks* ;)

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you meant *me crashes*.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[cp.tar]

But it's accepted by Christians to be like 6000 years old. Seriously. They think that dinosaurs and humans coexisted.

Of course they coexisted. Haven't you ever seen The Flintstones?

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Idiomatick]

Christians believing in 6000yr old earth by a landslide. Though they are also likely to believe in astrology. As for athiests that believe in astrology thats around 12% compared to the 28% average. On the other hand only slightly over half of people believe research into science is benefitial, slightly under half believe evolution should not be taught in schools 70% want creationism taught hell 46% of people don't know how long the earth takes to rotate the sun, 60% of people believe in psychics. Christians are definitely WORSE than atheists but both sides are whole-heartedly ignorant when it comes to science and reality. Also on a random side note republicans do 10~15% worse on almost every question studies by nsf asked. And girls did more poorly than guys on everything but medicine/biology.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[caluml]

Question - that'll require a brave person to say yes to honestly: Does anyone here, really, really think that the Earth is only 6000 years old?

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Anonymous Coward]

blame the poles melting.. i guess the area would suffice to take a couple of icy shelves in, thus giving mankind a bit more time from being flooded. just a corridor in the mountains would probably be enough to let the water in.
for the people there, it might be like "thanks for all the fish"

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[CrimsonAvenger]

But it's accepted by Christians to be like 6000 years old

Well, no. An Anglican Archbishop calculated that as the age of the Earth back in the 1600's. Back when calculating such things was considered scholarship.

First, most Christians are NOT Anglicans, and could give a rat's hind leg what a 400 year old Anglican Archbishop said about anything.

Second, these days, Anglicans don't believe him either. He's ancient history, and his ideas are considered, by most Christians, to be quaint.

Thirdly, of the few Christians who believe him, most don't know he's an Anglican Archbishop, so they don't know to pooh-pooh him for that reason.

And finally, there are some sects of Christianity who espouse the Young Earth opinion. I've never talked to a member of one of those sects who actually believed it, though no doubt some few did.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Anonymous Coward]

And 80% of all statistics are made up on the spot...

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Alsn]

I would just like to point out that I doubt very many people could answer how long it takes the earth to rotate the sun. Now, how long it takes to circle it...

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Anonymous Coward]

You HOPE he is being sarcastic? Get your sarcasm detector fixed.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[cvos]

Also on a random side note republicans do 10~15% worse on almost every question studies by nsf asked.

Link please. Credible sources must be sourced.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Idiomatick]

Info came from "Science & Engineering Indicators" sudy conducted yearly by the national science foundation AS SAID IN MY POST. Some came from Gallup & People for the AWF (American Way Foundation). Feel free to explore either study i encourage it. I rounded a couple figures by 2% i think the psychic figure was actually 58%.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Idiomatick]

Re two posts up. Also if you do your own research finding ANY study on science knowledge that shows which party or religion people subscribe to it will show the same.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[InfiniteLoopCounter]

I hope you're being sarcastic...The earth is accepted by scientists to be 4.5 billion years old.

Sorry for being picky, but I think you meant to say 4.5 plus-or-minus 0.1 billion years old.

See, 6000 years is an okay estimate if there is an error bar of 4.6 billion years.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Idiomatick]

From the article you just linked:
""U.S. Religious Landscape Survey" that was issued in June, 21% of self-proclaimed atheists believe in either a personal God or an impersonal force. Ten percent of atheists pray at least weekly and 12% believe in heaven."

This alone shows that the study is screwed up. From my dictionary "Atheist - One who disbelieves or denies the existence of God or gods." Yet the study says 21% of atheists believe in God. That study is total bullshit.
Furthermore, Baylor University is a Baptist liberal arts school showing its bias from the start. So speaking in tongues isn't occult neither are magical men in the sky. Really by definition ALL christians believe in ghosts. Ever heard of the holy spirit? Go to their site they had the actually questions they used for the study. It is such a dishonest study its gross. Demons, satan, talking to god, heaven and hell aren't considered to be faults in logic while believing in traditional medicine is. Come on now... Of course atheists are more likely to have ouija boards than staunch christians, it is 'a tool of the devil' they could not have one in their home. And i doubt most people take it seriously they are just toys not magic. They tagged 'having read a book about nostradamus' as belief in the occult. Of course atheists will have a higher number, we READ more.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Anonymous Coward]

Gotta love the disconnected logic that allows a person to pick and choose what parts of their "sacred text" they actually believe is true.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Poltras]

As the disconnected logic of believing that if something hasn't been proven, it doesn't exist? People believe because they have to, and they have the right to believe what they want.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[aqk]

Several studies have shown that fully 50% of Americans have IQs of LESS THAN 100!

Just how long do you think this country can last before it tanks?
.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[aqk]

Wel, of course every sensible person acknowledges that the "6000 yr old" Earth is a tad outdated.
Why, this scientific estimate was made almost 400 YEARS AGO!
Bishop Usher, for all his great knowledge, did not have our modern scientific tools for such precise measurements.
Today's scientists now have revised this estimate, and consider the Earth to have been actually created in 7730BC.
And on January 23rd. (And alas, it was a Thursday, we believe - Pope Gregory corrupted the days of the week).

So called "evolutionists" are ALWAYS quoting this "6000 year old" red herring, hoping to discredit our creationist science. But it will not work!

Darwin, Hawkins et al will burn in Hell! (perhaps Darwin is already there, now that Limbo has been abolished - good riddance!)

Please- Try to use this new revised figure - 7730 BC.
You may use "BCC" or "BCE" - we shall tolerate it.
.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Torvaun]

That's not actually true, because the tests aren't being weighted constantly to make it be true. At the inception of IQ tests, it was true, but only if we don't consider that those of sub-par IQ have a lower life expectancy, and such the actual population is going to average higher.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[dogdick]

before it tanks?

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[aqk]

OMG!
Does this mean that I will die at an early age??
.. I suspect (thank goodness) that I may already have beaten the odds!

Note to self: Watch health carefully!
.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[aqk]

LOL!

Sorry! Some of us are still living in the past...

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[dogdick]

you guys believe in 'facts' from a book written by people that thought the world was flat.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, the earth is less than 6000 years old. evolutionary theories are so flawed its unbelievable, go read "dismantling the big bang" seeing as you guys believe everything you read and see. but the time is coming when you'll realise that the "some Christians" know things, and that things revealed in that story book you people hate so much are starting to take place.. and considering time is of no importance in the evolutionary scheme of things, lets see what happens over the next 20 to 30 years.....

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[khanyisa]

You gotta seriously look at what was intended to be understood by Genesis 1 - even before modern theories about the age of the earth there were scholars who wouldn't have interpreted it as being literal days

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Anonymous Coward]

I, Anonymous Coward, truely believe the Earth is only 6000 years old.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[marcovje]

It's not in the bible btw, iirc some Pope or Cardinal calculated this in Medieval times from bible studies.

So even if you forget the Evolutionary angle, that number should be still very doubtful. Simply because human record goes back longer. (e.g. to Mesopotamia, and even the holy city of Jericho is older).

But: the East African Rift is also not news. Aside from the fact it has been forming for a few million years, I read the "splitting apart" story as news already in eighties Reader's Digest.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Anonymous Coward]

No I don't!

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[raptorsforever]

Simple. The earth is only 6,000 years old.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[AlecC]

James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh, published it in 1650, which is post-Medieval.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Whiteox]

Which sun do you mean?

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Whiteox]

The Flintstones also proved that aliens visited the Earth in the remote past: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Gazoo.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Whiteox]

you guys believe in 'facts' from a book written by people that thought the world was flat.

Prove that! There is nothing in the bible that states the world was flat.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Anonymous Coward]

...erm, actually, in the original post, you didn't mention where you got your figures. There's a good reason that a previous AC was giving you a hard time about the proliferation of improvised statistics.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Kagura]

That depends on the strength of tidal gravity on the sun as caused by the earth, although I would imagine that Jupiter and other planets would have a large effect than the earth on the sun's rotation.

Allow me to point you towards xkcd's "What's the third word that ends in 'gry'?"

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[tehcyder]

I'd rather deal with loons who are mistaken over how things were in the past than with loons who are loony over the present and most importantly the future.

Unfortunately the sort of Christian loons who believe the world is six thousand years old are precisely the ones most likely to welcome and potentially help bring about Armageddon.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Anonymous Coward]

I realise that I can be a little inconsistent sometimes. I should be thoroughly ashamed of myself.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[zevans]

Gotta love the disconnected logic that allows a person to pick and choose what parts of their "sacred text" they actually believe is true.

I don't see where string theory comes into it.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[zevans]

Don't think for one second I'm on the side of organised religion, but in line with your sig...

Well, no. An Anglican Archbishop calculated that as the age of the Earth back in the 1600's. Back when calculating such things was considered scholarship.

It was scholarship, and a lot of thought went into it. Unfortunately "GIGO" was not well understood at the time.

First, most Christians are NOT Anglicans, and could give a rat's hind leg what a 400 year old Anglican Archbishop said about anything.

Never thought of it like that, but you're right.

Second, these days, Anglicans don't believe him either. He's ancient history, and his ideas are considered, by most Christians, to be quaint.

Sub "geologists" for "Anglicans/Christians" and "Kelvin" for "his". Same sh!t, different peer group.

Thirdly, of the few Christians who believe him, most don't know he's an Anglican Archbishop, so they don't know to pooh-pooh him for that reason.

...and how many people shouting "4.5 billion" would know pitchblende from popcorn?

there are some sects of Christianity who espouse the Young Earth opinion. I've never talked to a member of one of those sects who actually believed it, though no doubt some few did

They know not what they do...

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Samurai Tony]

...alas, it was a Thursday...

I never could get the hang of Thursdays

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't know uptight fanatic right winged Christians even knew how to use the interwebs. Intriguing. They seem to have evolved?

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[aproposofwhat]

People believe because they have to, and they have the right to believe what they want.

Just as I have the right to tag them as idiots if they believe in Bronze Age myths :P

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[aproposofwhat]

Nice one, Mr Dent...

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[gfxguy]

Absolutely; there's no way something like this couldn't be man made. The planet simply doesn't change on it's own, that's just nonsense.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[gfxguy]

Actually it's a matter of believing whether or not the bible should be taken literally; probably most Christians don't believe it should be, but then I'm just guessing. As a Christian, I certainly don't think it should be taken literally; there's no hypocrisy.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Benfea]

ALL Christians, even the literalists, pick and choose which parts they want to accept as true. If you don't believe me, ask a creationist Baptist some time if he believes there is a physical "firmament" between the sky and the waters above it that God opens up to let the rain fall down.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[mdwh2]

This alone shows that the study is screwed up.

Indeed - oddly it usually happens the other way around, i.e., people will admit they don't believe in any kind of God, but are reluctant to identify as atheists.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[mdwh2]

The article completely misses the point - yes, there exist people who don't follow traditional religions, and still believe superstitious nonsense, but atheists who criticise religious belief (the so-called "New Atheist campaign", whatever that is - that term alone is enough to make it clear this source can't be trusted) equally criticise belief in any kind of superstition. Dawkins emphatically makes this point - indeed, it's something that others criticise him for, that he targets all kinds of irrationality rather than focusing on fundamentalists.

The article suggests that if people stopped becoming Christians, they'd become more superstitious - this claim is irrelevant, since most atheists are not people who simply oppose Christianity, they usually criticise all superstitious belief.

It's also flawed to suggest that non-Christians are more likely to be superstitious because of those questions - this ignores that Christian beliefs themselves are superstition. The stories that are a core belief of Christianity rate pretty highly as superstition!

Moreover, in the US, atheists are a minority. So those of us who reject all superstitious nonsense are outnumbered by those who don't, thus the responses of atheists will not make much difference to the responses of the non-Christian group.

The article makes a false comparison by drawing a division between "Christian superstitious beliefs" and "non-Christian superstitious beliefs", and then makes the logical fallacy of grouping the latter with atheism. You might as well say "Non-Christians are more likely to believe in a non-christian religion, therefore if we did what atheists said and stopped believing in Christians, we'd end up with even more religious people". It makes no sense.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Dog-Cow]

The Bible never gives an age for the Earth/Universe. Got to love the disconnected logic that allows a person to make things up at random and yet allows themselves to feel smugly superior to other people they claim are making things up.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[shutdown -p now]

They say that God has given people the ability to Reason so that they use it. Apparently, part of that use is to be able to distinguish parables and metaphors from plain narrative. Orthodox and particularly Catholics have developed it in a form of fine art all of its own. Before poking fun at it, it helps to actually get acquainted with it.

I'm not a Christian, mind you. Just sayin'...

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[jebrew]

I like the irony of your post and tag. Don't like creationists, but love Palin!

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[CommunistHamster]

Isn't it strange that some christians pick to believe the "no sex before marriage" thing instead of the "don't eat shellfish" part, though? I guess they must really like prawns.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[jebrew]

So...but then, if you work on Wednesday your damned to all hell?

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[jebrew]

It was still written by people who advocated human sacrifice (of your own children no less) as well as several other forms of brutal punishment.

I don't know that stoning is really a good punishment for coveting someone's ass.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[The_Wilschon]

Baylor University is in fact not a liberal arts school, but a full fledged university, with thriving programs in the hard sciences, engineering, business, etc. Furthermore, Baylor as a university is strongly committed to academic honesty (although perhaps Rodney Stark is not, based on your critique of the survey questions. I don't feel qualified to pass judgement on sociological survey questions, primarily because I think that all or nearly all sociology is complete BS.). I don't claim that perfect academic honesty has been achieved across the entire university yet, nor do I claim that there is such a thing as academic honesty in sociology, nor do I claim that any other university has achieved perfect academic honesty. There's always politics, and at this point, "Christian" interference with academic honesty at Baylor has become, in most cases, a matter of politics. I put Christian in scare quotes because, like most of the Baylor faculty, I believe honesty, including academic honesty, to be a vital Christian virtue.

Disclaimer: Baylor undergraduate class of 2007, Physics

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[ryanguill]

If you would like to point me to which part of my "sacred text" describes the earth as being 6000 years old I would be happy to agree with you, but just because some Christians believe that the Bible points to the earth being 6000 years old, and I believe incorrectly, does not mean that we should all be painted with the same brush.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[OwnedByTwoCats]

Six days of creation. Then the generations from Adam to Moses, all spelled out. This spells it out. I don't believe it. But it's literally in the bible.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[donscarletti]

Gotta love the disconnected logic that allows a person to pick and choose what parts of their "sacred text" they actually believe is true.

Genesis 1 says God created animals first and then humans (male and female, presumably in large numbers), Genesis 2 says God created animals afterwards to keep the first human company. I think it is fairly safe to assume that it was never meant to be taken literally. People add up the years and call them fact, but they totally neglect that two accounts are given, clearly two metaphors discussing God's creation of the world and God's purpose for humans, without getting deep into the whens and hows. People do the same in revelation, looking for the signs, adding up the years, debating when the rapture, tribulations, second coming, millennium will all come in relation to each other. Really they are just getting deep into stupid arguments about things that are not at the core of the faith.

And secondly, regarding creationism, who really cares anyway? Kids these days grow up surrounded by positive portrayal of many things that go against Christianity, most of all materialism (if you may permit me to go out on a tangent here), something that is condemned in the new testament more than sex before marriage, divorce and homosexuality put together, something practiced not just in pop culture (hip-hop, Paris Hilton, Capitalism, etc.) but even by evangelists and Christian churches worldwide. Yet, somehow some nutjobs are still concerned with kids being exposed by evolution, which even if it wasn't true, would still be a terrifically useful model for understanding biology.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[nfgaida]

How do you manage to put your underwear on your legs and not your head?

Amazing how the human brain can manage to use a computer, and yet be so broken such that it is unable to use any sort of rational logic.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[ewhenn]

I heard that 21% of black people are actually white.

True story.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[ewhenn]

.... the four corners of the earth...

Because spheroids have corners right?

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[karbyn-aceous]

and 20% of those are false ...

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[mdonley]

The debate about the age of the earth is ultimately a question of whose word we are going to trust: the all-knowing truthful Creator who has given us His inerrant book (the Bible) or finite, sinful creatures who give us their books that contain errors and therefore are frequently revised. If you firmly trust and carefully read the Bible and become informed on creationist interpretations of the geological record, you can easily see how the rocks of the earth powerfully confirm the Bible's teaching, both about Noah's Flood and a young earth.

-- Taken from the text of "The Key to the Age of the Earth", found at Answers In Genesis.

Dr. Terry Mortenson is a well-known speaker, researcher, and writer. He earned his doctorate in history of geology from Englandâ(TM)s University of Coventry and his M.Div. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois.

I would challenge most scholars to review the other material at Answers In Genesis to get a true understanding of Biblical Geology before further discussion on the matter.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Anonymous Coward]

"McCain/Palin '08!"

Is your sig a joke? I hope so, because you make fun of the " earth is only 6,000 years old", yet you vote for someone that beleives it?

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[khallow]

Christians believing in 6000yr old earth by a landslide.

And how many Christians believe in a 6000 year old Earth? It's a far lower number than the number of Christians.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Tweenk]

From my dictionary "Atheist - One who disbelieves or denies the existence of God or gods." Yet the study says 21% of atheists believe in God. That study is total bullshit.

I believe the criterion for saying who is an atheist is the same as for saying who is a Christian. You just ask people who they consider themselves to be. If that's so, there can be atheists that believe in God, e.g. if they are misinformed what "atheism" means. There's also some percentage of people who believe in God but are opposed to the churches of Christianity based on their practices and history, and those could also describe themselves as atheists.

Really by definition ALL christians believe in ghosts. Ever heard of the holy spirit?

Holy spirit = the force of God. Ghosts = souls of dead people that haunt the living. That's not exactly the same.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[operagost]

If there was, it was removed to cause the global flood.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[operagost]

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2015:1-20;&version=31;

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[operagost]

Really by definition ALL christians believe in ghosts. Ever heard of the holy spirit?

Yes, and he isn't a "ghost" because he was never human.

Of course atheists will have a higher number, we READ more.

That is ad hominem garbage.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[operagost]

Like Barack Obama?

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh my SCIENCE!

Yeah... that's better... Nevermind that some of the most brilliant thinkers have been Christians, Muslims, Jews, etc. The point is that you get to be funny. :) Ha.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[operagost]

That means compass directions. In Isaiah and Job, the Earth is described as being circular, which still doesn't prove three dimensions but I don't know if ancient Hebrew had a word for a sphere.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[retupmoca]

How do you manage to put your underwear on your legs and not your head?

Explain this to me again. Underwear *doesn't* go on my head?

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[deets101]

Or you could go to the Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, TX and see dinosaur foot prints in rocks right next to human foot prints.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Idiomatick]

Only study i could find on book reading: http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r155/xaiver_888/newspaper.jpg
I'll point out that the study i was laughing at was saying that reading books on occult meant you were occult.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[I'm not really here]

But if you look more closely at the original language, much of the book of Genesis is actually about a restoration of the earth after a cataclysmic flood that wiped out everything (often termed the Adamic flood by those that subscribe to this theory), followed by God restoring everything and then creating Adam and Eve.

The pre-adamic theory of creation is that we are descendants of this second humanity, and that previously there were other "people" (which matches fossil records of cro-magnum man, or whatever they are calling them now-a-days).

So, back to the original point - 6 days of God "letting" there be stuff (the word can be translated as "allow X to be its original form and purpose" or something similar, so "Let there be light" can also be translated as "Allow light to return to its original state" or similar.) This means that the earth existed for at least 6-7000 years, plus whatever is needed for all of the "nations of men" who existed prior (read the book of Dan, specifically about the King of Tyre) plus however long it would take for water covering the earth to kill everything.

Not all Christians are unable to believe that the earth is billions of years old and yet still believe in a literal interpretation of Scripture.

Please put the assumptions back on the shelf and remember that as in all things in this world, nothing is as simple as it appears - Except maybe 1+1=2 :-)

Oh, and I think it is pretty sweet to see an ocean forming. I've always found the idea of Pangea a really interesting concept, and likely to be true with the slow motions of the earth's crust. I hope someday (assuming I am right and heaven is real) to see this new ocean, and hope to see many of you there with me to marvel at the continued creation of our God.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Anonymous Coward]

What do you mean? They STILL exist.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Anonymous Coward]

DISREGARD THAT, I SUCK COCKS

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[cp.tar]

Oh my SCIENCE!

Yeah... that's better... Nevermind that some of the most brilliant thinkers have been Christians, Muslims, Jews, etc. The point is that you get to be funny. :) Ha.

Yes, you are right. This proves everything.

On a side note, most of the most brilliant thinkers have been men, as in male, i.e. not at all female. What kind of conclusion can you draw from that?

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[againjj]

Truth and fact are different. The creation stories of Genesis cannot be all literally true facts, since they are literally inconsistent. They even have different authors. However, they can spell out truths of human existence. As far as the chronologies go, they are put in by yet another author. All of these are part of the Bible to help define the truths for the society that they were written by.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[EsbenMoseHansen]

I am no expert, but I believe that the bible contains two complete lineages from Jesus to Adam. I believe the 6K figure came from this. The two lineages themselves are a bit odd, but it is claimed that one is through Joseph (which didn't fuck Maria, and isn't the father) and the other through Maria (she is not listed, and it would be quite unique for that text to contain any maternal links).

But seriously, this is nitpicking. The truly troubling parts are the ones that seem to condole wholesale slaughter of men, women and even animals. Or killing a child with a knife. Or offering a woman for gang rape. Or preaching to turn away from your family. After reading that, who really cares if the bible is obviously off on a few points?

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Radoslaw Zielinski]

""U.S. Religious Landscape Survey" that was issued in June, 21% of self-proclaimed atheists believe in either a personal God or an impersonal force. Ten percent of atheists pray at least weekly and 12% believe in heaven."

This alone shows that the study is screwed up. From my dictionary "Atheist - One who disbelieves or denies the existence of God or gods." Yet the study says 21% of atheists believe in God. That study is total bullshit.

You did not understand.

It says "self-proclaimed". Some people answer "yes" when asked if they're atheists, yet they also answer "yes" when asked if they believe in some higher force.

People's understanding of the word "atheist" is where the flaw is; the study just exposes that.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[CrimsonAvenger]

you guys believe in 'facts' from a book written by people that thought the world was flat.

Oddly enough, most primary sources of historical material that were written before Christ thought the world was flat too. Not all of them, but most.

Should we disregard what we learned about the Pharoahs because they though the world was flat? Or the Assyrians? The Persians? The Hittites? The Romans (arguably the Romans knew better, or at least had a decent excuse to know better. But I've never seen anything definitive written by a pre-Christian Roman author saying the world was round, so I can't say)?

Personally, I've always thought we were bright enough to separate the wheat from the chaff - you make me doubt that.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Anonymous Coward]

The "don't eat shellfish" is part of the old Law that we are no longer under. Specifically, verses 24 and 25:

So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.

However, we're still warned not to continue sinning and to avoid sexual immorality.
Romans 13:13

Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.

1 Corinthians 6

The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[et764]

From my dictionary "Atheist - One who disbelieves or denies the existence of God or gods." Yet the study says 21% of atheists believe in God.

The conclusion I got from this is that 21% of atheists have absolutely no idea what atheism means, but they just call themselves atheists because they think it's cool. I'm pretty sure even on Slashdot I've read self-proclaimed atheists say they're open to the possibility of there being a god, they just don't know of any evidence for said god's existence. Anyway, not having any idea what your religion or lack thereof is really about seems to be a pretty common trait in America these days.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not in the bible btw, iirc some Pope or Cardinal calculated this in Medieval times from bible studies.

I believe it was a C19th English clergyman. In any case, the date is calculated using the lists of generations and dating back from a known historical event. So it is in the Bible, it just takes a bit of accountancy to work it out.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Capsaicin]

As the disconnected logic of believing that if something hasn't been proven, it doesn't exist?

I prefer the connected logic (tautology) of believing that if something hasn't been proven to exist, it hasn't been proven to exist. What could possibly motivate me to go the next step and positively assert that "Unicorns don't exist." In other words what possible reason could I have for accepting the onus of proof for the non-existence of Unicorns, where the onus otherwise resides with those asserting the existence of Unicorns? Unicorns are in the same position as a potentially infinite number other objects which cannot be proven to exist. To stress the non-existence of Unicorns, seems to me to place Unicorns in a privileged position relative to other members of the set of unproven things. I don't see why the concept 'Unicorn' deserves such special treatment and I simply don't have time to prove the non-existence (even were this logically possible) of an inifite number of things the existence of which cannot be proven.

Or to put this another way. Merely because a non-existent object cannot be proven not to exist, this does not make it logical to accept the existence (even putatively) of said object. Quite the opposite.

On a connected note, you will find very few philosphically minded atheists who would make the statement "the god(s) do(es) not exist." There's a vast difference between an atheist (lack of belief in the existence of the gods) from an assertion of the gods non-existence, rhetorical attempts (by people wishing to paint atheism as a 'belief') to push a distinction between "strong" vs "weak" atheists, notwithstanding.

People believe because they have to ...

You don't have to believe in Unicorns, really you don't.

... and they have the right to believe what they want.

Absolutely. But that doesn't make the question of why so many people choose to exercise this right in such obvious defiance of reality one that shouldn't be put.

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[dogdick]

If you believe we are what [g]od created in his own image, you're fucking retarded.

"Hi, I am the great and powerful god, Ive done created this" * motions to humanity *

Good job?

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Idiomatick]

Pffft who needs a belief structure to base all your decisions off of? Just do what seems right in your heart without thinking about your actions and you could be president!

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[tenco]

it is M$'s fault.

As if the african IT market had Jobs's undivided attention.

Wish I'd be around to see it

[gyrogeerloose]

Bet there would be one very impressive waterfall when the Red Sea finally breaks through.

Re:Wish I'd be around to see it

[chill]

Blasphemer! How dare you reduce the Second Great Flood to a mere "waterfall"!

Re:Wish I'd be around to see it

[Anonymous Coward]

Agreed.

It will also, likely, be good for the area. The presence of more water seems likely to result in better crops. Then again, the Red Sea is quite salty, so maybe not.

Re:Wish I'd be around to see it

[bigjarom]

This already happened: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messinian_Salinity_Crisis#Replenishment"

Re:Wish I'd be around to see it

[ErkDemon]

Dammit, I can't wait ten million years, I want to see this NOW!

:)

If it's already way below sea level, couldn't we dig a little trench at one end to let the water in?

You know what this means, of course

[Provocateur]

That 10 million years from now, the split will be complete. Slashdot will report this, and one /.er will complain, "It's a dupe! This story appeared 10 million years ago! What's up with the cyborg editors?"

Re:You know what this means, of course

[ccguy]

That 10 million years from now, the split will be complete.

I've started moving 50 Gb worth of small files from a Windows box to a Linux box using Samba's default configuration + Windows explorer.

I figure we can use my progress bar as a reasonable approximation.

Re:You know what this means, of course

[Yvanhoe]

I wish I will be this user...

Re:You know what this means, of course

[dlsmith]

And here I was going to complain that this is definitely *not* "news" if it's been going on for 20 million years.

Re:You know what this means, of course

[Anonymous Coward]

A 20-million-year lag isn't too bad for /.

Re:You know what this means, of course

[ypctx]

In other news: Scientists are puzzled as it only took 2 weeks for the west half of what was previously the african continent to reach the east shores of North America.

Re:You know what this means, of course

[Anonymous Coward]

"Idiotical" is right. Learn to spell.

Re:You know what this means, of course

[sir fer]

Learn to shut up concerning things you don't understand, fool.

Re:You know what this means, of course

[ichigo 2.0]

Well, to be honest this is a dupe. I remember reading about it on slashdot earlier this decade. Of course, with geologic timescales it's hard to tell which one of the articles was posted first.

Re:You know what this means, of course

[Anne_Nonymous]

>> 10 million years from now

This isn't a slow news day, it's a slow news day.

Re:You know what this means, of course

[SETIGuy]

Well, to be honest this is a dupe.

Understatement of the century. I think I first learned about the East African Rift in an Oceanography class in 1985. And then again in an anthropology class the following year. How exactly is this newsworthy?

Re:You know what this means, of course

[jc42]

How exactly is this newsworthy?

A /. editor just heard of it.

It probably does set some sort of record for "old news" here. Have we had any other stories that were in high-school textbooks several decades earlier?

Re:You know what this means, of course

[Anonymous Coward]

I, for one, will welcome our cyborg editor overlords.

So it's a "sea", then, not an ocean...

[Joce640k]

/Pedantic

Re:So it's a "sea", then, not an ocean...

[tirerim]

Well, it's not anything, yet. When it opens further, it will become an arm of the Indian Ocean. If the expansion continues, and depending on what happens to East Africa and the Indian Ocean, it could become an ocean in its own right, or perhaps half of the Indian Ocean, with a substantial divider between it and the other half.

This thread is useless...

[Anonymous Coward]

... without relief maps.

I don't want to read some art's grads long winded verbose description of something that can be shown to me in 2 diagrams.

Re:This thread is useless...

[lysergic.acid]

I don't want to read some art's grads long winded verbose description...

as opposed to a long winded terse description?

Re:This thread is useless...

[Anonymous Coward]

That's what Google Maps is for, or, better, Google Earth (centered on Erte Ale). Flip on the "Wikipedia" button, and, yeah, it's much more useful.

Re:This thread is useless...

[Anonymous Coward]

So you didn't get as far as "Click here to view this photo essay as a slide show" 3 paragraphs down the article?

Muppet.

Someone will blame this on...

[YrWrstNtmr]

Before long, someone will blame this on GlobalWarming.

Mention of this split WILL show up in someone's eco-speech.

Re:Someone will blame this on...

[Vinegar Joe]

I blame George Bush!

Re:Someone will blame this on...

[TubeSteak]

Before long, someone will blame this on GlobalWarming.

Mention of this split WILL show up in someone's eco-speech.

And ideally they will get publicly called out on their idiocy

Here's another article on the Afar region
http://www.nj.com/south/index.ssf/2008/10/post.html
(they cite this article http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4512244.stm )

An 8-meter wide, 60-kilometer long rift (...) developed in the Afar desert region of north-eastern Africa in just 3 weeks. An earthquake on the 14th of September is said to have sparked the growing tear in the African desert, followed up by moderate tremors and then, finally, a volcanic eruption.

Re:Someone will blame this on...

[Daniel Dvorkin]

And global warming denialists will claim that the volcanoes in the rift are putting out far more C02 than humans are, so why worry about anything? Drill, baby, drill!

Young-earth creationists will find Biblical verses that explain how this process has actually only been going on for 6000 years.

ID'ers will claim that the whole process is irreducibly complex.

Re:Someone will blame this on...

[WamBam]

I blame gay marriages, higher taxes and Obama Bin Laden. Sarah Palin will go maverick and fix this for us.

Re:Someone will blame this on...

[owlnation]

I blame Al Gore...

Ha! Even his name nearly reads like "All Gorge"!

Re:Someone will blame this on...

[ccguy]

Before long, someone will blame this on GlobalWarming.

There are bets on williamhill.co.uk on this, but I gotta tell you, GlobalWarming pays 3.0 while a Bush friend offering to rebuild a proper Red Sea pays 1.05.

Check on the 'what's going to happen first' section of political events for current odds.

Re:Someone will blame this on...

[Anonymous Coward]

I blame ManBearPig

Re:Someone will blame this on...

[S-100]

I blame Willow Palin.

Re:Someone will blame this on...

[clarkkent09]

Mention of this split WILL show up in someone's eco-speech.

Not sure why people warning of global warming are such a popular target for snide comments, even if they do occasionally exaggerate or misunderstand the science involved. After all, the global warming is a reality and to quote a statement endorsed by "all of the national academies of science of the major industrialized countries" it is "is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic (man-made) greenhouse gas concentrations" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming). This is controversial in the same sense that the theory of evolution is, in that people are free to disagree even with established scientific facts when it is in their interest to do so. In both cases the interest is part religious and part financial.

Re:Someone will blame this on...

[Ihmhi]

Sarah Palin will go maverick

Well if she does, I hope X and Zero are around to save our asses!

Re:Someone will blame this on...

[lysergic.acid]

because straw man attacks in completely unrelated discussions are the only time when the global warming deniers can feign a winning argument--since they can't refute actual scientific evidence that supports global warming (like the currently accepted climate model). but i'm sure these armchair climatologists know much better than IPCC researchers and scientists.

or maybe it's because any kind of social/political/environmental activism is unfashionable in the eyes of mainstream culture. it's much cooler to be apathetic and uninformed. and ridiculing those trying to make the world a better place helps ease the guilt of one's inaction.

Re:Someone will blame this on...

[Anonymous Coward]

Why would anyone blame this on Global Warming? Do you even know what Global Warming is? Even the most polarizing environmentalists have been careful not to confuse anthropogenic climate change with plate tectonics.

Re:Someone will blame this on...

[Anonymous Coward]

Caucasians you insensitive clod!

Re:Someone will blame this on...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's actually a solution for the problem of melting ice caps...all that extra water, instead of flooding low coastline cities, can be sucked up by this "ocean" in the making. Of course that's just a temporary fix to one of the problems of global warming, and we'll have to wait 10 million years for that fix.

Meanwhile, during a presidential debate, one party suggest that by drilling for oil there, we can solve two problems at once...get the oil, and simply replace it with melting ice. It will be called, the "Drill, baby, drill" solution, and it is expected that the President will point to this emergency problem, and congress will vote the rest of the money the US has in Ft. Knox to be directed to oil companies to solve the problem. Congressman Dennis Kuchinich will object.

Re:Someone will blame this on...

[Anonymous Coward]

And some of us will huddle quietly in the corner bemoaning what humanity has been reduced to.

Re:Someone will blame this on...

[Gilmoure]

I thought AlGor was one of those monsters that attacked Tokyo but was defeated by Godzilla in a giant flying battleship?

Re:Someone will blame this on...

[Detritus]

Maybe it's because the average environmental activist is an idiot. Then again, the average human being is an idiot. For too many people, environmentalism is the new religion, filling the hole left by the decline of traditional religions.

Re:Someone will blame this on...

[Anonymous Coward]

The albinos!

Re:Someone will blame this on...

[PachmanP]

Is it just me or does this seem like the wrong topic to cite wikipedia? First off I was taught you never cite wikipedia, and second, you certainly don't for controversial topics. I mean in theory some could replace your quote with "is very likely due to the observed increase in the penis-headedness of clarkkent09". As an aside, there really are times I wish I was a wikipedia mod...

Re:Someone will blame this on...

[Cussin_IT]

Nonononono.
Godzila wasn't in the flying battleship, Algor was. It was magicaly imbued with life by the genecycst before being forced to do Algores bidding after he put the shakles of fok-dizfu Ra-larrc on it.

Re:Someone will blame this on...

[DogAlmity]

No no, that's Caucasus.

We're blaming mountains now, right?

Re:Someone will blame this on...

[dbIII]

Only if we hide her lipstick.

Re:Someone will blame this on...

[clarkkent09]

the quote from wikipedia is just a convenient summary of a straightforward fact that such a statement exists and was indeed endorsed by just about ALL significant scientific organizations. this can be easily checked from other sources. a search for the first part of that sentence "very likely due to the observed increase" in top 10 results shows the same quote on sites such as national geographic, UN, US congress etc

Re:Someone will blame this on...

[mwlewis]

Or perhaps it's because they're still waiting on some scientific evidence that doesn't rely on unvalidated computer models. And that doesn't try to ignore past temperatures and carbon dioxide levels. The IPCC is a political body, and shouldn't be confused with science. Trying to make the world a better place by inventing doomsday scenarios to justify attempts to destroy modern economies is a much worse way to make yourself feel better.

Re:Someone will blame this on...

[red_blue_yellow]

Brilliant, sir! Most brilliant... I am now haunted by images of a cyborg Sarah Palin.

Africa Become Flooded?

[AndGodSed]

Well there goes property values...

Re:Africa Become Flooded?

[AndGodSed]

Hey!

Get a clue. I am white and I live in Africa.

Geez - racist idiot...

Re:Africa Become Flooded?

[Anonymous Coward]

Please don't feed the trolls.

Re:Africa Become Flooded?

[PolygamousRanchKid]

Well there goes property values...

Yes, right up through the roof! All these great new sea front lots! Great for your yacht! Let's build some golf courses! Invite Tiger Woods to play there! Tax-exempt for the next 10 million years! (Consider it a long term investment)

This will certainly give Dubai a run for their money!

Re:Africa Become Flooded?

[Hognoxious]

That or he's a jaapie who didn't have an English grandad, and in consequence he's stuck there waiting for the day it all goes like Zimbabwe.

Re:Africa Become Flooded?

[Bruiser80]

Are you kidding? Think of the ocean-front property! The water will be pretty shallow too, so it'll be warm water, and there's already a ton of sand!

The time to buy in is now! :-)

Re:Africa Become Flooded?

[AmberBlackCat]

Well there goes property values...

I was going to reply about how suddenly turning the land into beachfront property would probably make the property values go up, but then I started thinking about how this would be just in time for Africa's coast to be the setting for Duke Nukem Forever.

Re:Africa Become Flooded?

[Anonymous Coward]

Were you forced off your land at gunpoint for being white yet?

Re:Africa Become Flooded?

[Hognoxious]

Mods - put down that crack pipe. This might have been flamebait, but it's not redundant.

doesn't seem that uncommon

[khallow]

There's another ocean forming in the Gulf of California. It's the same story with a rift underneath. The rift actually runs up to Albuquerque in New Mexico.

Re:doesn't seem that uncommon

[Khemisty]

"The Gulf of California came into being as tectonic forces rifted the Baja California Peninsula off of the North American Plate about 12 million years ago. As part of this process, the East Pacific Rise propagated up the middle of the Gulf along the seabottom. The Gulf would extend as far as Indio, California except for the tremendous delta created by the Colorado River. This delta blocks the sea from flooding the Mexicali and Imperial Valleys."

Got this little gem from good ol' Wikipedia. So the Colorado river delta is only temporarily holding back the expansion that would otherwise occur? Obviously I'm not a geologist so just wondering if anyone in the know can compare the above comment to the East African rift?

Re:doesn't seem that uncommon

[Herkum01]

Finally I am going to have beachfront property! (I live in Tucson, AZ BTW).

Re:doesn't seem that uncommon

[nycbauer]

Didn't Lex Luthor try to take advantage of that???

Re:doesn't seem that uncommon

[ShatteredArm]

Possibly. The Salton Sea was formed when the Colorado River overflowed its banks. I'm not sure the delta is going anywhere soon, though.

Re:doesn't seem that uncommon

[Spacepup]

I'm in Tucson as well. We have beach front property... didn't you read the instructions? They say "Just add water..."

Re:doesn't seem that uncommon

[Anonymous Coward]

...The rift actually runs up to Albuquerque in New Mexico.

I thought the most likely scenario for the split was through the Salton Sink on up through Death Valley.

Re:doesn't seem that uncommon

[khallow]

You're right, different valley. There is a rift valley in New Mexico (the Rio Grande runs through the center of it as it flows to El Paso). Must be a different ocean forming in New Mexico. ;-)

Re:doesn't seem that uncommon

[GonzoPhysicist]

The California coast is a traverse fault, not a divergent one like in Africa. So it's a slightly different case.

Re:doesn't seem that uncommon

[niktemadur]

There's another ocean forming in the Gulf of California.

There's also Lake Baikal in Siberia, the deepest fresh water body on Earth, also in the process of becoming an ocean.

Conversely, the Black, Caspian and Mediterranean Seas are all remnants of the ancient Tethys Ocean.

The Earth's crust is a fascinating, incredibly dynamic thing.

Re:doesn't seem that uncommon

[khallow]

No, the spreading in the Gulf of California is directly connected to the global sea floor rift system, just like the Africa rift valley is. And the transverse faults you refer to mostly are a number of faults, including the San Andreas fault, that mostly run somewhat parallel to the coast. I understand that they end somewhere to the north of the Gulf of California.

Re:doesn't seem that uncommon

[Elenthalion]

The chorus of a certain George Strait song comes to mind... :-) Who knew he was a prophet?

"I got some ocean front property in Arizona.
From my front porch you can see the sea."

Re:doesn't seem that uncommon

[sponga]

The timescales on these movements are so large that it is ridiculous, there are probably far worse things to worry about like weather patterns and drought than the old joke of Southern California sliding off into the Pacific.
Actually you can walk down to the cliffs along all of California and witness/touch the erosion of the cliffs, although at a rate of an inch or so every 10 years it will likely be hundreds of thousands of years before we see any remarkable geological shift(Nuclear waste might be safe by than). I think we will witness a massive tsunami wave first before we watch the coast slide off.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

I say we dig a canal

[Anonymous Coward]

parts of the area are over 100 meters below sea level. Low hills to the east are all that stops the Red Sea from encroaching.

Let's get to work and develop some shoreline real estate!

Re:I say we dig a canal

[sznupi]

Better leave it alone and let nature take its few million years; the place is already riddled with conflicts, imagine what

a) destroying some land
b) prospects of access to the sea for nearby places

would do...

Re:I say we dig a canal

[Anonymous Coward]

We just want to see hundreds of tons of explosives going off at once and witness the resultant waterfall.

What's up with the cyborg editors?

[Anonymous Coward]

Still waiting for Linux to win the desktop.

Re:What's up with the cyborg editors?

[should_be_linear]

Still waiting for Linux to win the desktop.

Over bundled Plan 9 OEM

Re:What's up with the cyborg editors?

[cailith1970]

Duke Nukem Forever apparently will be in beta.

Re:May it be a sign of the Flying Spaghetti Monste

[pjt33]

There are already a few pirates in the vicinity.

Stop feeding!

[Anonymous Coward]

Africa is splitting apart at the seams.

Do you really need to give the trolls encouragement to post yet another Goatse link?

Re:Stop feeding!

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't worry, I'm sure that won't happen on this thread.

Plate tectonics?

[SupplyMission]

Haha, this is news to Slashdot?

The African Rift Valley has been taught to first year geology students since plate tectonics were discovered decades ago.

Re:Plate tectonics?

[interactive_civilian]

I know, right? I realize some /.ers live under rocks, but seriously, I think I first learned about this in 6th or 7th grade science and had already been hearing about it on National Geographic specials and various PBS science shows for years before that. To see this story posted here as news made me, at first, think that something major had happened and the Great Rift Valley was finally filling with water.

It's interesting information and all, but not exactly news. :-/

Re:Plate tectonics?

[InfiniteLoopCounter]

I think that what makes this news is the pictures and the new science that can be conveyed with them. If you disregard this news as "old" and not read it critically, you might be missing out on some information.

There's also the fact that I hadn't actually heard of this before today. I'm sure a lot of other ./ readers hadn't either (but probably won't admit to it after reading your post).

Disclosure - Fine. I do live under a rock. But it is a both practical and fashionable rock!

Re:Plate tectonics?

[dword]

Good point. This is news to Slashdot? It's been going on for twenty million years now.

Re:Plate tectonics?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hell, we learnt of that in high school geography.

No one?

[Minstrel Boy]

"Formation of an ocean is a rare event, one no scientist has ever witnessed. Yet this geophysical nativity is unfolding today in one of the hottest and most inhospitable corners of the globe. Africa is splitting apart at the seams. From the southern tip of the Red Sea southward through Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique, the continent is coming unstitched along a zone called the East African Rift." This stretching of the earth's crust has been going on for 20 million years, and within another 10 million the Red Sea will have broken through to create a new sea.

So actually *every scientist* has witnessed this event...
KeS

Re:The really funny thing

[Anonymous Coward]

Even their nation can't avoid the Chicken!

Sun comes up!

[Anonymous Coward]

Big News! Quick tell everyone the sun came up this morning!

Re:Sun comes up!

[xstonedogx]

The sun came up this morning? Damn it. Mother never tells me anything.

YAY!

[Anonymous Coward]

When Sahara splits up we'll have the biggest sand beach ever!

A dollar short, 10 million years late

[Mipsalawishus]

Well, that's cold comfort for the inhabitants who are unable to sustain crops because of not having a water supply nearby.

Re:A dollar short, 10 million years late

[Merls the Sneaky]

How would having a sea in the rift effect weather? More rain possibly?

Birth of an African Ocean?

[Anonymous Coward]

How long before Angelina adopts it?

YEAH!

[linhares]

This stretching of the earth's crust has been going on for 20 million years, and within another 10 million the Red Sea will have broken through to create a new sea.

I hope they post this shit to youtube; that's gonna be really cool. Pressing reload already.

Some Google Maps highlights

[Anonymous Coward]

It's in this part of eastern Africa, adjacent to the junction of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in Ethiopia and Eritrea, and is known as the Afar Depression. All this black stuff is Erte Ale, a volcano that is almost continuously erupting. You can see the fresh black lava flows that historically oozed down the sides, and if you zoom in, you can see the red glow of the lava lake. The salt pan areas mentioned in the article are to the north (Danakil Depression), and are well below sea level (the Wikipedia page on the former settlement of Dallol notes that Dallol is 50m above sea level, but that's the settlement site, not the lake/salt pan, which is lower). There are vast areas of stretched and faulted crust to the southeast (the cliffs are the fault scarps), and Lake Assal, another salt lake 153 metres below sea level.

This area is more impressive if you fly over it in Google Earth rather than Google Maps. Practically every cone-shaped peak you see in this area is a volcano that has been recently or not so recently active, and to the south you can clearly see the flanks of the East African Rift and the series of lakes that occupy the rift valley as far south as Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique, interspersed with volcanoes all along the way. This is an awesome part of the world for geology.

Re:Some Google Maps highlights

[the_arrow]

And if you zoom out, and know it's there, you can actually see the rift. Or maybe I'm just imagining it all, and need todays first cup of coffee.

Re:Some Google Maps highlights

[jc42]

Nah; you're not imagining it. If you use google maps' "Terrain" button, and zoom out so you can see all of eastern Africa, the Rift Zone is fairly obvious. Any decent topographic map should show it fairly clearly. Most of Africa is fairly old terrain, with the mountain ranges worn down. But the Rift Zone is new volcanic terrain, and is really irregular and jumbled.

It's interesting to contemplate that this is where most of the early human fossils have been found. It's the main territory where our species originated.

afar rift home page

[jefu]

For more information, you can try the Afar Rift Home Page for the Afar Rift Project.

Think in four dimensions

[mangu]

It starts small. It WILL be an ocean. AFTER it goes through the sea stage. Right now it's still just a "rift".

When thinking about geologic processes, it's very important to consider the time dimension.

Re:Think in four dimensions

[Nefarious Wheel]

It starts small. It WILL be an ocean. AFTER it goes through the sea stage. Right now it's still just a "rift".

Better get that epic gear for your hunter then. Pet classes will rule.

Oh, wait...

Re:Think in four dimensions

[SEWilco]

And after the ocean stage, it will be a mountain range when the edge collides with another continent. So why isn't this article called "Birth of a New African Mountain Range"? How shortsighted.

Oh OK so this is where we can find the.....

[3seas]

... melting ice cap water.

and even more important we find out that pulling in water from the salty oceans across alot of land makes teh water much more drinkable.

Is this news?

[orkybash]

I thought it was well-known in scientific circles that the East African Rift Valley was going to eventually result in the formation of this. TFA seems to be really describing the interesting geological processes that can be seen in the rift valley, not breaking the news that it exists and that it will eventually turn into an ocean.

O snap!

[ndnspongebob]

Free Ocean!!!

Re:O snap!

[CorporateSuit]

I claim this Ocean for Spain!

Duh!

[Anonymous Coward]

I must agree with the guys who have said this is not news... I studied this, and several other such geological events in Geography classes at the U.W. a decade ago... It was old info then...

i.e. The bottom of Hudson Bay bobs up and down like a boat floating in water. Like a metronome it rises too far and that whole area becomes a high mountain plain as it pushes the water out and then it falls too far becoming a "bay" that should be called a "sea" at least... It takes millions of years for each cycle and it rises/falls slightly less each time, so in about 100 billion years it might come to rest... maybe about the same time the Pacific Ocean becomes just a river between the continents we now call North America and Asia...

Hideous fun thought

[Sierran]

The frustrated weaponeer in me thinks "Hey! That's how we deal with ocean levels rising! Find some basins and nuke holes between them and oceans!"

Heh.

Didn't I learn this 20 years ago

[dayton967]

This isn't news, unless you state it has created a new ocean today. Which if it has, we better put our heads between our legs and kiss our butts goodbye.

Re:Didn't I learn this 20 years ago

[Gunstick]

this is just a first... we will get duplicate stories on slashtod on this subject for the next 10 million years.
And when it then finally happens, it gets tagged "oldnews"

Interesting

[moniker127]

This is interesting, sure, but how is this news? If it has been going on for the last 10 million years, why are we talking about it now? Was this just discovered? Perhaps I didnt RTFA well enough, but I'm missing whats happened.

We must rise up to this challenge

[evil_arrival_of_good]

We must create regulations that stem this awful tide which threatens ancient ways and will likely cause hardship on families. When Bono speaks to this ocean, I want the ocean to listen and offer to help.

And that's why it won't be better there...

[sznupi]

...for a long time.

If pointung out some problems with parent post gets labelled as "troll"...I'm not sure if saying that people wear blinkers on their eyes regarding the issues is enough, seems like they want it to stay that way.

Re:And that's why it won't be better there...

[Anonymous Coward]

I was thinking of Ephraim Kishon's "Blaumilch Canal" when I wrote that comment. That you realized there might be some problems with that plan is only fitting and does not deserve a troll rating at all.

Afar

[Lalo Martins]

So that's what they mean when they say "travellers from Afar". I always suspected that was somewhere in Africa.

Re:OMG!!! Seriously!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Then pray tell, just what continent does the african rift valley lie in? That's the most prominent rift valley that I know of...

Waiting!?

[sultanoslack]

Bah. 10002008 is the year of the Linux desktop!

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the area in Afrca where "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life" is set.

I blame Obama.

[JeanPaulBob]

He's the one who said we needed change!

Re:I blame Obama.

[eXonyte]

I have quite enough change, thank you. I'd prefer large bills.

Re:I blame Obama.

[Boronx]

We know you would, but he's constitutionally limited to two terms.

Expanding/Growing Earth Theory may just have legs

[proclivity76]

It amazes me that in the face of such collossal changes in science (like from flat earth, to round) that we're still reluctant to explore the possibility that maybe the earth hasn't really been the same size for millions of years.

Re:Corners... on a sphere?

[davidsyes]

Troll my ass, you TWIT! Is it true or not?

POS (Point Of Split)

[tgrigsby]

This will only make sense to a handful of people, but it's actually the fault of plug-ins, followed closely by George Bush, hardware, Freddie Mac, Gary Roberts, licensing, and "Other."

The definition of Inhospitable - US Media

[posinabox]

"in one of the hottest and most inhospitable corners of the globe" According to American Media I thought that was in reference to countries in the Middle East, oh, I mean N. Korea, actually according to US Media anywhere that is not geographically located in N. America or Western Europe.

In 10 million Years I'd Be A Fossil....

[Whiteox]

FGS! What a dumb story. Light relief at best.
Of course the continents will change in the next 10 million years! Unless Armageddon comes first.

TIP: If you have any seaside property, SELL NOW!!!

How is this news?

[RichiH]

I learned this a decade or two ago in school.. That's old even by /. standards.

Au naturellment!

[DrSkwid]

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=oJfBSc6e7QQ

Lame...

[PortHaven]

Really, I think I heard about this 20 yrs ago. Since it's been happening over millions of years, and will take millions of years. I am not sure I accept either of the stated premises.

1. This is NOT the birth of a new ocean, unless the crack finally spread all the way to the ocean so as to unleash a rush of water that drowns the ensuing valley and literally creates an instant sea that was not there yesterday morning - than this is NOT a birth.

2. As it's happening over 20 million years and we're in the middle part of that. I do not think that qualifies as observing the birth. That'dbe like claiming to have observed grass growing. Sure it's longer over a few days and now I need to mow. But who has literally watched a single blade of grass grow and distinguished it's growth over a few hours. Not many of us...

A big assumption

[GameboyRMH]

At the inception of IQ tests, it was true, but only if we don't consider that those of sub-par IQ have a lower life expectancy, and such the actual population is going to average higher.

People with lower IQs probably don't have a significantly lower life expectancy, and they sure reproduce a lot more (providing both the nature (barring any lucky genetic quirks/throwbacks) and nurture to raise unintelligent children)...but these are just my observations.

Slashdotter's Proposed Name

[Anonymous Coward]

The Goat Sea!

feel the excitement

[karbyn-aceous]

I can hardly wait to see this!!

10 million years?

[KiwiCanuck]

Ok so I got some time b4 I need to break out the popcorn for the show.

Yes...it is

[hellfire]

Considering I have an IS degree and not a geology degree and this is the first time I've heard of it, yes it is news. And I find it worthy of news for nerds, as I am a nerd and find this fascinating.

I have a son interested in geology as well, he probably hasn't heard of this. Perhaps he'll get a head start on his degree and start looking things up now.

Re:Yes...it is

[SupplyMission]

This is news in the same way that an article proclaiming the radioactivity and dangers of uranium is news.

But yes, I agree, geology as an option for a degree isn't advertised nearly enough. In our times, geology is a lucrative and interesting career path. Minerals, base metals and oil are in high demand, and geologists are the people who find all these things.

I could've told you this after taking Geo Sci 106

[haaz]

ya see, know that I'm is going to cawlleg, I'z reel smart. s-m-r-t smart!

Good thing no one asked me, huh?

Another 10 million years

[alisson]

So it's not really going to happen "today," now is it?

if you think about it.

[Anonymous Coward]

if global warming is actually an abnormal event, not a cycle that occurs over time, which if you look at environmental history from old cultures you see constant back and forth fluctuation between several climates in these areas, such as the
Roman Empire to the Middle Ages to modern day. the Earth may be simply adapting to the "rising oceans", which have risen and fallen the exact same way they are now over time. don't you love how science kicks itself in the butt so often?