Not all continental rifts turn into oceans, and there’s still a chance the East African Rift might fail. Panoramic view of Abidjatta-Shalla Lakes National Park in Ethiopia Great Rift Valley, Ethiopia Getty Images The Western Rift Valley, meanwhile, stretches from Uganda to Mozambique, and contains some of the deepest lakes in the world. EARS is about 25 million years in the making and consists of two branches: The Eastern Rift Valley extends from Jordan to the coast of Mozambique. One of the greatest geological wonders in the world, the north–south East African Rift System (or EARS) is actually a network of rifts and valleys caused by the fracturing of the earth’s crust.
Scientists now suspect that it’s along this rift that the first continental breakup since Pangea will occur and that in a couple million years or so, Africa might span two continents-allowing the Earth to debut its newest ocean. Of those features, today the Dabbahu Fissure is the star of the show. At about the same rate that your fingernail grows, these plates are moving apart, while processes below them are generating the extreme heat and energy that cause the unique geophysical features the region is known for. A mecca for Earth scientists, the Afar Triple Junction sits in the Y-shaped cradle of the Arabian, Nubian, and Somali plates. The Dabbahu Fissure, as the 2005 rift became known, is hardly the first geological event to rock the Afar, a remote region scattered with geysers, gas vents, hot springs, volcanoes, and one of the only lava lakes in the world. The view along the active Manda-Hararo rift, towards Dabbahu volcano in Afar, Ethiopia DavidMPyle // Wikimedia Commons
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