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The Red Sea is parting again, but this time Moses doesn’t have a hand in it. Satellite images show that the Arabian tectonic plate and the African plate are moving away from each other, stretching the Earth's crust and widening the southern end of the Red Sea, scientists reported in this week's issue of journal Nature. Last September, a series of earthquakes started splitting the planet's surface along a 37-mile section of the East African Rift in Afar, Ethiopia. Using the images gathered by the European Space Agency's Envisat radar satellite, researchers looked at satellite data before and after these...

Normally new rivers, seas and mountains are born in slow motion. The Afar Triangle near the Horn of Africa is another story. A new ocean is forming there with staggering speed -- at least by geological standards. Africa will eventually lose its horn. Geologist Dereje Ayalew and his colleagues from Addis Ababa University were amazed -- and frightened. They had only just stepped out of their helicopter onto the desert plains of central Ethiopia when the ground began to shake under their feet. The pilot shouted for the scientists to get back to the helicopter. And then it happened: the...

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...

A rift that opened in Africa after a massive earthquake last September could be the beginning of a new Ocean, scientists say. The crack in the ground appeared along a fault line in the Afar desert in Ethiopia. The crack is heading for the Red Sea. If it makes it that far, it would carve a new ocean that would separate Eritrea and part of Ethiopia (both of which lie on the Arabian plate) from the rest of the continent, creating a new island.Satellite data collected since the quake shows that the rift is widening at an unprecedented rate, according...

The Manda-Hararo rift in the Afar region of Ethiopia. Credit: DavidMPyle / CC BY-SA 4.0 =================================================================== A steady underground pulse has been discovered beneath East Africa, where researchers believe a new ocean is gradually forming. The rhythmic movement was detected in the Afar region of Ethiopia, a geological hotspot where three giant sections of the Earth’s crust—the Arabian, Nubian, and Somalian plates—are slowly pulling apart. The site, known as the Afar Triple Junction, is one of few places on Earth where the process of continental breakup can be observed on land. As the plates drift in different directions, the ground...

WASHINGTON — In a cheerfully decorated common room at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, with floral paintings adorning violet walls, Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania begins most days meeting with his chief of staff, who arrives around 10 a.m. carrying a briefcase full of newspaper clips, statements for him to approve, legislation to review and other business of the day. The contents of that briefcase encompass the majority of Fetterman’s connection to the outside world these days, as the first-term Democrat from Pennsylvania finishes his third week in the hospital being treated for severe clinical depression. Doctors caring...

The new jawbone: its teeth are smaller than those of other human relatives Scientists have unearthed the jawbone of what they claim is one of the very first humans. The 2.8 million-year-old specimen is 400,000 years older than researchers thought that our kind first emerged. The discovery in Ethiopia suggests climate change spurred the transition from tree dweller to upright walker. The head of the research team told BBC News that the find gives the first insight into "the most important transitions in human evolution". Prof Brian Villmoare of the University of Nevada in Las Vegas said the discovery...

The researchers trace the fossil record, which illustrates a timeline placing multiple species overlapping in time and geographic space. Their insights spur further questions about how these early human ancestors were related and shared resources... The 1974 discovery of Australopithecus afarensis, which lived from 3.8 to 2.9 million years ago, was a major milestone in paleoanthropology that pushed the record of hominins earlier than 3 million years ago and demonstrated the antiquity of human-like walking. Scientists have long argued that there was only one pre-human species at any given time before 3 million years ago that gave rise to another...

A new species of ancient human has been unearthed in the Afar region of Ethiopia, scientists report. Researchers discovered jaw bones and teeth, which date to between 3.3m and 3.5m years old. It means this new hominin was alive at the same time as several other early human species, suggesting our family tree is more complicated than was thought. The study is published in the journal Nature. The new species has been called Australopithecus deyiremeda, which means "close relative" in the language spoken by the Afar people. The ancient remains are thought to belong to four individuals, who would have...

TAL AFAR, Iraq, Sep. 4, 2006 – The 1st, Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 3rd Iraqi Army Division, became the third and final battalion to take the lead in assuming security operations for the city of Tal Afar during a ceremony held at Fort Tal Afar on Sept. 2, U.S. officials reported. On hand for the ceremony were Tal Afar Mayor Najim Abdullah al-Jubori; Maj. Gen. Khorsheed, commander of the 3rd Iraqi Army Division; Brig. Gen. Qais Hamza, commander of the division’s 2nd Brigade; U.S. Army Lt. Col. John Tien, commander of Task Force 2-37; and various dignitaries from the surrounding area....

PALOMINAS — For many people, building a barbed-wire fence under the burning Arizona sun would probably be the last way they would want to spend their Memorial Day weekend. Not Minuteman Project volunteer Christie Czajkowski, however. She signed up for the group’s weekend fence-building inauguration almost as soon as she heard about it — even though it meant driving 15 hours from her home in Chula Vista, Calif. “What else am I going to do, go to another beach party?” laughed the 33-year-old baker as she paused from a turn at stringing wire. “No, I need to do something to...

Would you care to guess who said this: "To the courageous men and women of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, who have changed the city of Tall Afar (Iraq) from a ghost town, in which terrorists spread death and destruction, to a secure city flourishing with life"? Give up? That is a letter from...

U.S. Army Sgt. Robert A. Guttersohn, an infantryman with Company B, 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, throws rocks to the side as he digs through a pile of stones in search of hidden caches during a raid in Tall Afar, Iraq, Oct. 18, 2005. Guttersohn is a native of Canton, Mich. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. James Wilt More Photos Tall Afar Search Unearths Weapons Cache A local resident insists troops missed some weapons during an initial search; a subsequent search yields weapons buried beneath rocks and soil. By U.S. Army Pfc. James Wilt 82nd...

A group of Iraqi men in Tall Afar, Iraq, talk to U.S. Army Lt. Col. Christopher Gibson, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, about the country's constitutional referendum, Oct. 15, 2005. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. James Wilt Paratroopers Aid Election Security in Tall Afar The Iraqi election day went by without any instances of violencein the paratrooper-controlled sector of the city. By U.S. Army Pfc. James Wilt Task Force White Falcon, 82nd Airborne Division TALL AFAR, Iraq, Oct. 17, 2005 — U.S. Army paratroopers from the 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment,...

TALL AFAR, Iraq, Oct. 11, 2005 — Coalition commanders and 14 headmasters of area schools met Oct. 6 to discuss and coordinate the clean-up, repair and opening of schools here. "As you look around this room, you can see that whether you are Sunni, Shiite, Turkmen or Kurd, you all agree on your children, your future," said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Christopher Gibson, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. "We hope we can leave those schools as soon as possible but we do not want to do so too early and allow the criminals...

TAL AFAR, Iraq (Army News Service, Sept. 23, 2005) -- About 700 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division, working with Soldiers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, are attempting to place the troubled city of Tal Afar under control before the constitutional referendum in October and the national elections in December. The paratroopers of 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment arrived Sept. 11, ready to fight, but opposition was light. They conducted patrols and searched homes in the nearly deserted city, as well as questioned the few local residents who failed to evacuate prior to the operation. “It was less...

Inuit 'Poisoned from Afar' Due to Climate Change 2 hours, 1 minute ago By Amran Abocar TORONTO (Reuters) - The Inuit living in the Arctic region are being "poisoned from afar" as climate change takes its toll on the area and threatens their existence, the head of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference said on Wednesday. Sheila Watt-Cloutier, chairwoman of the group that represents about 155,000 Inuit in the Arctic regions of Canada, Russia, Greenland and the United States, said Inuit were paying dearly for the actions of people elsewhere. "The Inuit have now become the net recipients of toxins coming from...