Africa 'witnessing birth of a new ocean' (2010)
1–10 of 63 posts
Re: Africa 'witnessing birth of a new ocean' (2010)
#2TL;DR a split in Ethiopia is about 65km long. It'll eventually split the African Continent in 10 million years. Hold off the oceanfront land speculation.
Article is from 2010 btw.
Re: Africa 'witnessing birth of a new ocean' (2010)
#3Another article from 2013 reports conflicting evidence: http://www.livescience.com/39724-afar-rift-deep-mantle-melt....
Re: Africa 'witnessing birth of a new ocean' (2010)
#4A map would be extremely useful to illustrate the process (instead of a picture of dirt). I am also not clear as to why the new waterway would be considered a "new ocean." Would it not just form a strait or at most a sea as a part of the Indian Ocean?
Re: Africa 'witnessing birth of a new ocean' (2010)
#5We should set up a webcam there and make a time lapse for the next 10 million years.
Re: Africa 'witnessing birth of a new ocean' (2010)
#6A single inlet, attached to the Red Sea -- wouldn't this be a Sea and not an Ocean?
Also a story like this without a map is very annoying; my best guess as to where it is is here:
https://www.google.com/maps/@10.1384475,40.4893819,818636a,2...
Re: Africa 'witnessing birth of a new ocean' (2010)
#7TL;DR a split in Ethiopia is about 65km long. It'll eventually split the African Continent in 10 million years. Hold off the oceanfront land speculation. Article is from 2010 btw.
> Article is from 2010 btw.
Thank you for pointing this out. I find a tendency to not seek out date of publish and assume content from places like hackernews is current. From 2010 feels a lot less like current events which is part of what I read the front page here.
New years resolution is to check dates and sources of articles, thanks!
Re: Africa 'witnessing birth of a new ocean' (2010)
#8A single inlet, attached to the Red Sea -- wouldn't this be a Sea and not an Ocean ? Also a story like this without a map is very annoying; my best guess as to where it is is here: https://www.google.com/maps/@10.1384475,40.4893819,818636a,2...
In the long term, the rift (which is an example of what is, in other contexts, referred to as a "mid-ocean spreading center") will produce much more than a narrow inlet attached to the Red Sea.
But, yes, the initial body of water that will form will not be what anyone would characterize as an ocean.
Re: Africa 'witnessing birth of a new ocean' (2010)
#9Another article from 2013 reports conflicting evidence: http://www.livescience.com/39724-afar-rift-deep-mantle-melt....
Actually, no, that article reports differences between the EAR and mature ocean spreading centers, but that is not evidence which conflicts with the idea that it is a nascent spreading center.
Re: Africa 'witnessing birth of a new ocean' (2010)
#10A single inlet, attached to the Red Sea -- wouldn't this be a Sea and not an Ocean ? Also a story like this without a map is very annoying; my best guess as to where it is is here: https://www.google.com/maps/@10.1384475,40.4893819,818636a,2...
The Earth has a continental drift cycle where we form a supercontinent, which changes the circulation pattern, the supercontinent breaks up, the pieces drift around the world, and then recombine into a supercontinent again.
The last supercontinent was Pangea Asia, Europe and Africa are what is left and they are continuing to break up. The next one will meet where the Pacific plate now is.
So this starts as a rift, then a valley, then an inlet, then that will widen into an ocean, and then the barriers between oceans will disappear.
So yes, this will be a sea before it is an ocean. But it is also correct to talk about it as the birth of a new ocean. (The Red Sea is also on its way to being an ocean. It is just farther along. And the Atlantic is farther along still.)