Force of nature parts the Red Sea (Geologists believe they are witnessing the creation of an ocean)

Times Online ^ | July 21, 2006 | Mark Henderson

[ClearCase_guy]

Eritrea and northeast Ethiopia, which are joined to Africa but lie on the Arabian Plate, would become marooned and would form a new island.

Poor use of the term "maroon".

When Bush said that terrorists would find no safe harbor in Afghanistan, the media laughed at him -- Afghanistan being a landlocked country. But, of course, everyone knew what he meant.

I know what the journalist means. But countries don't get marooned.

[eastsider]

Force of nature parts the Red Sea

Holy Moses!

[DustyMoment]

I was getting the lawnchair and the popcorn ready to take a ringside seat and watch this spectacle of nature (probably caused by Global Warming) unfold, but the million years thing is a little off-putting!!

[Lancer_N3502A]

If there's any sea parting to be done Charlton Heston will do it!

[Mr Ramsbotham]

This is Bush's fault.

[Element187]

Is this some sort of sick joke from moses?

[Grendel9]

At last! The REAL dis on the basics
"As The World Turns."

[rod1]

So if I were to buy the right plot of land-locked sand today I could have a island beachfront property in a million years?

[Moral Hazard]

"So if I were to buy the right plot of land-locked sand today I could have a island beachfront property in a million years?"

Or if you're Lex Luthor and you fire a couple nuclear missiles at the San Andreas fault in California you could have it much sooner.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See this for earlier thread with more graphics:

Geologists have ringside seats for an ocean's birth ~~ A new sea forming in Africa

[rod1]

I have a smaller one of those in my backyard that is vole-generated.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

"The scientists used data from the Envisat satellite to show that an 8-metre rift developed along a 37-mile (60km) stretch of the fault in just three weeks."

I remember a National Geographic special that talked about the fact that salt water was beginning to trickle into the upper end (about 20 km inland, I recall) of the Great Rift valley. One or two good quakes and the red sea could start to drain into the valley. Could happen in our lifetime.
(Good thing too, with all the water coming from the Al Gore's melting ice caps...now we have somewhere to put it! )

[JavaTheHutt]

Eritrea and northeast Ethiopia, which are joined to Africa but lie on the Arabian Plate, would become marooned and would form a new island.

In my best imitation of George Strait---"I've got some ocean front property in Ethiopia, from my front porch you can see the sea..."

[JavaTheHutt]

One or two good quakes and the red sea could start to drain into the valley.

Or one or two nuclear warheads

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Meybe, or meybe not; but "Never say Never Again"

[SunkenCiv]

Scientists: Fissure Could Become New Ocean (Ethiopia)
news.yahoo.com | Sat Dec 10,12:45 AM ET | By ANTHONY MITCHELL
Posted on 12/10/2005 3:36:33 PM PST by Esther Ruth
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1537997/posts

[SunkenCiv]

Not sending a general distribution, merely adding to the keyword.

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[RightWhale]

Sometimes plates rise or sink. Continents don’t drift much with those plates in the way.

[Carilisa]

Is this how our Lake Superior was pretty much formed, seeing as it is a failed rift?

http://www.geo.umn.edu/people/grads/davi0919/srthesis/midcontinent.html

http://www.geo.umn.edu/people/grads/davi0919/srthesis/midcont.gif

Picked up an agate the size of my fist last week on those shores!