The great African split: geological forces at work "The East African Rift System represents one of Earth’s most dramatic examples of active continental rifting. This massive fault zone stretches over 6,000 kilometers from the Red Sea to Mozambique, where powerful tectonic forces are literally tearing the continent apart. The region sits at a critical junction of three major tectonic plates: the Somali, African, and Arabian plates." For decades, scientists believed this continental separation would take millions of years to complete. However, dramatic events in 2005 challenged this timeline. In western Ethiopia, a massive fissure approximately 60 kilometers long suddenly opened in the Earth’s crust. Within minutes, the ground separated by two meters—a shift that would normally require centuries to occur.
