Posted on 12/10/2005 3:36:33 PM PST by Esther Ruth
Scientists: Fissure Could Become New Ocean By ANTHONY MITCHELL, Associated Press Writer Sat Dec 10,12:45 AM ET
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Ethiopian, American and European researchers have observed a fissure in a desert in the remote northeast that could be the "birth of a new ocean basin," scientists said Friday.
Researchers from Britain, France, Italy and the U.S. have been observing the 37-mile long fissure since it split open in September in the Afar desert and estimate it will take a million years to fully form into an ocean, said Dereje Ayalew, who leads the team of 18 scientists studying the phenomenon.
The fissure, now 13 feet wide, formed in just three weeks after a Sept. 14 earthquake in a barren region called Boina, some 621 miles north east of the capital, Addis Ababa, said Dereje.
"We believe we have seen the birth of a new ocean basin," said Dereje of Addis Ababa University. "This is unprecedented in scientific history because we usually see the split after it has happened. But here we are watching the phenomenon."
The findings have been presented at a weeklong American Geophysical Union meeting taking place in San Francisco that ends Friday.
"It's amazing," the BBC quoted one of the Afar researchers, Cindy Ebinger of the Royal Holloway University of London, as saying in San Francisco. "It's the first large event we've seen like this in a rift zone since the advent of some of the space-based techniques we're now using, and which give us a resolution and a detail to see what's really going on and how the earth processes work."
The Ethiopian Afar Geophysical Lithospheric Experiment, involving scientists from Royal Holloway and the universities of Leicester, Leeds and Addis Ababa, is using sensitive instruments to study what is happening deep within the earth.
Dereje said that the split is the beginning of a long process, which will eventually lead to Ethiopia's eastern part tearing off from the rest of Africa, a sea forming in the gap. The Afar desert is being torn off the continent by about 0.8 inches each year.
"The crust under Afar is becoming like the crust found in the Red Sea," said Dereje, head of earth science at Addis Ababa University. "Once the crust is formed you will have water because it is a low area and the water will migrate from the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. It becomes a basin."
The scientists plan to set up an observatory to watch the split and see how it develops.
Please don't post the results of Ted Kennedy's recent physical on FR.
"..the 37-mile long fissure since it split open in September in the Afar desert..."
"The fissure, now 13 feet wide, formed in just three weeks after a Sept. 14 earthquake in a barren region called Boina, some 621 miles north east of the capital, Addis Ababa, said Dereje."
Interesting. The Great Rift Valley and now this. Ancient Africa is finally separating.
I can't wait!
Scientists -- just maybe -- will be surprised to learn that these needs do not need a million years to accomplish.
Guess it is to early to be buying up ocean front property.
That's pretty cool. The island of E. Ethiopia. Of course, I'll have to wait a million years to make reservations, but by then it might be a nice place.
I won't hold my breath.
The Afar desert is being torn off the continent by about 0.8 inches each year.
Let's see, 0.8 inches a year times a million years equals an 800,000 inch wide ocean. Sounds pretty impressive.
Not if we get "The Big One" before then. Could happen "overnight".
but it's not likely.
ML/NJ
Surfs Up!
This could be trouble for India.
I guess it would be too early to get in on the land grab for ocean front property....
I wonder how Halliburton finally moved its huge earthquake machine to Africa.
Scientists -- just maybe -- will be surprised to learn that these needs do not need a million years to accomplish.
***
When the Creator decides He is going to start rearranging things on His planet it is going to happen quick I think.
Unfortunately many will be surprised.
Unless it extends to the Nile's headwaters, then fresh, muddy water will flow down and finish filling in the Red Sea from the other end. Boy that's one patient and determined river.
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