Roughly 250 million years ago, traveling from present-day Australia to North America would have been surprisingly simple—a walk across a single landmass with a stopover in Antarctica. At that time, Earth’s continents were joined in a vast supercontinent called Pangaea, which gradually fractured and drifted apart to form the landmasses we recognize today. However, these continents aren’t static. One recent scientific warning suggests that a landmass is splitting apart far more rapidly than previously believed.
Could an entire continent break in two? While forecasting Earth’s distant future is complex, geologists have identified an area where this process is already underway. A 35-mile-long fissure in Ethiopia’s desert, first detected in 2005, continues to widen at a rate of 6–7 mm per year. This fissure is part of the East African Rift System, a 2,000-mile-long geological feature that has been evolving for over 22 million years as tectonic plates slowly shift. These vast slabs of Earth’s crust and upper mantle are in perpetual motion—colliding, separating, and grinding past one another—causing earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in the process.
How Soon Will Africa Split?
Eastern Africa sits atop the Somali Plate, which has been drifting away from the Nubian Plate for approximately 25 million years, according to research from 2012. As this rift expands, experts predict that the region could eventually split apart entirely. Once the gap is wide enough for ocean water to flood in, parts of Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia could separate from the rest of Africa, forming a new landmass—potentially named the Somali Plate continent—surrounded by what may become the world’s sixth ocean. Professor Ken MacDonald from the University of California, Santa Barbara, explained to MailOnline that visible fault movements and volcanic activity are already signs of this transformation.
How soon could this occur? Scientists have long debated the timeline for Africa’s gradual breakup. The Geological Society of London states that while the East African Rift remains above sea level for now, continued expansion will eventually cause the valley floor to sink, allowing seawater to rush in. If rifting continues, a new oceanic basin could form, complete with a mid-ocean ridge dividing the Nubian and Somali Plates. Early estimates suggested this process could take tens of millions of years, but MacDonald has proposed that it might unfold within one to five million years. For now, the impact remains gradual—manifesting through occasional earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and slow shifts in the landscape—but its long-term effects are monumental.
The Forces Behind Africa’s Split
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What’s causing this continental split? Though much of the activity occurs deep beneath the surface, parts of Africa already show visible signs of change. In 2005, the Ethiopian fissure dramatically opened, and in 2018, a similar event in Kenya created a massive crack after heavy rains. Scientists attribute this rifting to heat from Earth’s core, which pushes molten rock upward, forcing tectonic plates apart. Another contributing factor involves the lithosphere, the rigid outer layer of Earth’s mantle that “floats” on the softer asthenosphere. A phenomenon known as the African Superplume—a massive upwelling of hot mantle material beneath southern Africa—may be weakening the lithosphere, causing it to stretch and sink, further accelerating the rifting process. This slow-motion geological upheaval is gradually reshaping Africa, setting the stage for an eventual transformation on a continental scale.