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Birth of a New African Ocean

Posted by kdawson on from the interesting-times-interesting-places dept.

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.

8 of 261 comments (clear)

  1. Red Sea tag suggestion: by FooAtWFU · · Score: 5, Funny

    blamemoses.

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    The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
    1. Re:Red Sea tag suggestion: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      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!

    2. Re:Red Sea tag suggestion: by aqk · · Score: 5, Funny

      Wel, of course every sensible person acknowledges that the "6000 yr old" Earth is a tad outdated.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

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      .
      - aqk
      F U /. illiterates.
  2. You know what this means, of course by Provocateur · · Score: 5, Funny

    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?"

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    WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
    1. Re:You know what this means, of course by ccguy · · Score: 5, Funny

      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.

  3. What's up with the cyborg editors? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Still waiting for Linux to win the desktop.

  4. Re:Someone will blame this on... by WamBam · · Score: 5, Funny

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

  5. No one? by Minstrel+Boy · · Score: 5, Funny

    "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