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Giant Rift In Africa Will Create a New Ocean
Hugh Pickens writes "Researchers at the University of Rochester believe that a 35-mile rift in the desert of Ethiopia will likely become a new ocean in a million years or so, connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden. Using newly gathered seismic data, researchers have reconstructed how the rift tore open along its entire 35-mile length in just days. Dabbahu, a volcano at the northern end of the rift, erupted first, then magma pushed up through the middle of the rift area and began 'unzipping' the rift in both directions. 'We know that seafloor ridges are created by a similar intrusion of magma into a rift, but we never knew that a huge length of the ridge could break open at once like this,' says Cindy Ebinger, professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Rochester. The results show that highly active volcanic boundaries along the edges of tectonic ocean plates may suddenly break apart in large sections, instead of in bits, as the leading theory had previously held. The sudden large-scale events pose a much more serious hazard to populations living near the rift than would several smaller events."
Except that it didn't happen in just a few days....
It is still a nice theory though... just not as dramatic.
Another nice theory is that the 'flood' was just a local one.
Not so long ago the world ended at the horizon for most people since they never traveled far from home.
And since a lot of civilizations started in river deltas (which tend to flood now and then) it is not a surprise that many religions contain some flooding in their myths.
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The news is not that the East African rift will form a new ocean - that's been known for a few years - but that it can happen very quickly. A timescale of days for an event of that scale is really rather significant, since it means that if something like it were to happen anywhere near existing infrastructure, our ability to adapt to it would be extremely limited. Well, not until afterwards anyway.
Another geographical blunder in the article is saying that the rift will connect the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. That's because they're already connected.
"Little does he know, but there is no 'I' in 'Idiot'!"
The geologic evidence is pretty clear that these huge "Missoula Floods" repeatedly blew through the southeast quadrant of Washington State, sometimes covering about a third of the state.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missoula_Floods