Posted on 07/13/2014 8:17:38 AM PDT by Citizen Zed
In a new study, scientists have determined that a recent tear in Earth's continental crust near the sea is the largest single rip seen since satellite monitoring began.
For the past 30 million years the Arabian tectonic plate has been moving away from the African (Nubian) plate at the Red Sea.
But the rift, in which Earth's crust is being stretched and thinned, is not happening smoothly.
Most of the time the plates are stuck together. But in September of last year they split apart along a 37-mile (60-kilometer) section in Afar, Ethiopia (Ethiopia map), near the southern end of the Red Sea.
The scientist's observations may help to explain how Earth's plates split apart and how new crust forms.
The study suggests that the splitting is due to the injection of underground magma (molten rock) into the rift rather than earthquakes happening on tectonic faults.
"It is clear that the rise of molten rock through the plate is enabling the breakup of Africa and Arabia," said Tim Wright, an earth and environmental scientist at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com ...
I’ve got to blame Global Warming for this tragic event.
Red Sea Region Parting in Massive Split, Moves whole Middle East to Antarctica
there fixed it
Nonsense! Everybody knows Bush did it!
It might just be racism.
Hmmm....of beasts, dragons, and sea....and the abyss or two.
Catastrophic ping.
it does happen slowly, bummer.
Article is 8 years old.
Red sea, ping!
If the crack would get bigger and the water went in it, 0zero can claim he lowered the seas! lol
He didn’t but he would have if the Saudi’s had ordered him to.
The nice thing about geological time is that the article is still likely to be current for the next million or so years. The Afar region is interesting because we can see what is happening as it’s not covered by miles of water.
This isn’t the first time the Red Sea has been parted.
This is terrible. We need immediate UN resolutions and a Tax in the US to stop this.
The Great Rift and the Jordan
http://www.varchive.org/itb/rift.htm
The Age of the Dead Sea
http://www.varchive.org/itb/deadsea.htm
Most of the time the plates are stuck together. But in September of last year they split apart along a 37-mile (60-kilometer) section in Afar, Ethiopia (Ethiopia map), near the southern end of the Red Sea. The scientist's observations may help to explain how Earth's plates split apart and how new crust forms.Also one of *those* topics, bigtime.
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