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:

[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:

[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:

[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:

[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Wel, of course every sensible person acknowledges that the "6000 yr old" Earth is a tad outdated.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:

[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:

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:Red Sea tag suggestion:

[Anonymous Coward]

No I don't!

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:

[Samurai Tony]

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

I never could get the hang of Thursdays

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

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Africa Become Flooded?

[AndGodSed]

Well there goes property values...

Re:Wish I'd be around to see it

[chill]

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

[cailith1970]

Duke Nukem Forever apparently will be in beta.

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.

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?

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:doesn't seem that uncommon

[Herkum01]

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

Afar

[Lalo Martins]

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

Re:Sun comes up!

[xstonedogx]

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

Waiting!?

[sultanoslack]

Bah. 10002008 is the year of the Linux desktop!