Rift in Ethiopian Desert likely to become a new ocean

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November 6, 2009  
Filed under News

A 35-mile-long crack in the Earth’s crust that formed in Ethiopia in 2005 is starting to look like it will become a new ocean. The crack was formed in September of 2005, when a nearby volcano, Dabbahu, erupted and diverted the magma into the continental rift underground instead of sending it up to the surface. The magma then cooled into a “wedge-shaped ‘dyke’” which, when it was uplifted, caused a rupture in the surface, thus causing the crack. The crack is only a part of a continental rift caused by the African and Arabian tectonic plates drifting away from each other. Scientists are thrilled about this phenomenon because this usually only takes place along the ocean floor where they can only study the rifts by sections at a time.

Written by Cameron Condo

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