Latest news with #tectonicplates
The Sun
28-05-2025
- Science
- The Sun
Africa is being split apart by intense ‘superplume' of hot rock 1,800 miles below Earth's surface, experts warn
AFRICA is splitting apart - meaning the continent will form two separate land masses with an ocean in between in several million years, experts say. But the driving force behind the continental drift has long been debated. 7 7 7 Scientists previously thought Africa's tectonic plates, which collided to form large mountains and pulled apart to create vast basins, were simply moving apart again. But a new study from the University of Glasgow suggests that intense volcanic activity deep underground may be fuelling the divide. A gigantic superplume of hot rock, roughly 1,800 miles (2,900km) beneath the Earth's surface, is pushing up against the African crust and fracturing it. Professor Fin Stuart, of the University of Glasgow and the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC), led the project. He said: "We have long been interested in how the deep Earth rises to surface, how much is transported, and just what role it plays on forming the large-scale topography of the Earth's surface. "Our research suggests that a giant hot blob of rock from the core-mantle boundary is present beneath East Africa, it is driving the plates apart and propping up the Africa continent so it hundreds of metres higher than normal." Experts suspected as much back in 2023, but geologists have now detected volcanic gases that back up the theory. The Meengai geothermal field in central Kenya has a chemical signature that comes from deep inside Earth's mantle, matching those found in volcanic rocks to the north, in the Red Sea, and to the south, in Malawi. The discovery indicates that all these locations are sat atop the same deep mantle rock, according to experts. Inside active volcano where world's largest ACID lake is buried - so dangerous it melts human skin & spews blue lava Study co-author, Biying Chen, of the University of Edinburgh and SUERC, said: "These gases from our geothermal wells have provide valuable new insight into the Earth's deep interior." Chen added that the findings will help researchers to understand both the geological forces shaping East Africa and "the fundamental processes which drive the formation of our planet's surface over millions of years". 7 The East African Rift System (EARS) is the largest active continental rift system on Earth. It is in the process of ripping through around 2,175miles (3,500km) of Africa. Continental rifting is nothing new for Earth - and is the reason why we have seven continents today. Roughly 240 million years ago, long before humans roamed, Earth was home to just one supercontinent known as Pangaea. The Scottish Highlands, the Appalachians, and the Atlas Mountains were actually all part of the same mountain range on Pangaea, but were torn apart by continental drift. In January, Ken Macdonald, a professor at the University of California, warned the continent was splitting at a faster rate than expected. Somalia and parts of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania will form a distinct continent, accompanied by a fresh coastline. The split would create a new ocean, and a small new continent that he said could be called the "Nubian continent". "What might happen is that the waters of the Indian Ocean would come in and flood what is now the East African Rift Valley," Ken Macdonald, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told the Mail Online. The new ocean could become as deep as the Atlantic if waters continue to flow into the area, added Macdonald. 7 7 7
Daily Mail
21-05-2025
- Science
- Daily Mail
Scientists discovery why one of the world's continents apart at double speed
A massive geological transformation is taking place in East Africa, where a hidden force beneath the Earth's surface is slowly tearing the continent apart. The process stems from the East African Rift System (EARS), which is a 2,000-mile-long rift that began forming at least 22 million years ago and runs through the region where Africa's Great Lakes are located. This rift marks the boundary between two tectonic plates: the Somali Plate and the Nubian Plate (part of the African Plate), which are gradually pulling away from each other. Scientists have now identified a massive upwelling of hot, partially molten rock beneath the region, known as the African Superplume, which is driving this divergence. Beneath the surface, intense heat and pressure from the superplume are weakening and cracking the Earth's outer layer, known as the lithosphere. GPS measurements indicate that the plates are moving apart at a rate of about 0.2 inches per year, roughly the speed at which human fingernails grow. Over time, this rifting could form a new ocean, potentially splitting off parts of Somalia, eastern Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania to form a new landmass. While the full separation was previously thought to take tens of millions of years, recent models suggest it could happen in one to five million years. In the new study, scientists from the University of Glasgow in Scotland used data from Kenya's Menengai geothermal field to trace the isotopes of the noble gas neon. This helped the team determine whether the forces splitting Africa apart originate deep within the Earth's mantle or are due to shallower surface tectonic processes. They found that the gas likely comes from deep within the Earth, between the outer core and the mantle. Lead author Professor Fin Stuart said in a statement: 'We have long been interested in how the deep Earth rises to surface, how much is transported, and just what role it plays on forming the large-scale topography of the Earth's surface.' 'Our research suggests that a giant hot blob of rock from the core-mantle boundary is present beneath East Africa, it is driving the plates apart and propping up the Africa continent so it hundreds of meters higher than normal,' Stuart added. Using high-precision mass spectrometry, the team also identified a consistent chemical 'fingerprint' across a wide area. This supports the theory that the EARS is fueled by a 'superplume,' rather than several smaller sources. The study provides crucial insights into continental breakup and ocean formation, enabling researchers to comprehend similar processes that have shaped Earth's surface throughout history. EARS spans from Ethiopia to Malawi, and massive cracks have appeared in recent years. In 2005, a series of over 400 earthquakes in Ethiopia's Afar region led to the sudden appearance of a 37-mile long crack, providing an example of how dynamic forces works. Similarly in 2018, a massive crack emerged in Kenya's Great Rift Valley, disrupting transportation and highlighting the ongoing nature of the continental split. As the rift continues to widen, scientists predict that seawater from the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean will eventually flood the low-lying areas, creating a new ocean basin. Ken Macdonald, a marine geophysicist, said: 'The Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea will flood over the Afar region and into the East African Rift Valley, giving rise to a new ocean.' 'Consequently, this part of East Africa will evolve into its own distinct continent,' he added. Countries like Somalia, Kenya, and Tanzania could become part of a new landmass, effectively forming a separate continent. While landlocked nations such as Uganda and Zambia might gain coastlines, altering trade routes and geopolitical dynamic. This ongoing rifting leads to frequent earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and large fractures across the landscape.
Gizmodo
14-05-2025
- Science
- Gizmodo
Shocking Video Shows Earth Tearing Open During Myanmar's Earthquake in March
The camera points toward the gated entrance of a property and a long concrete driveway. About eight seconds in, the metal gate begins to vibrate, and then everything starts to shake. The gate flies open, a distant transmission tower buckles—and the whole right side of the scene slides forward. The footage dates back to March 28 of this year, when Myanmar experienced a magnitude 7.7 earthquake and several aftershocks that claimed over 3,600 victims and caused thousands of injuries. While the epicenter was near the city of Mandalay, people as far as Bangkok, Thailand's capital, felt the powerful shaking. The video captures a ground or surface rupture—when an earthquake tears the Earth right up to the surface—and it might be the first of its kind. On Sunday, Singaporean engineer Htin Aung posted the video on Facebook, where the channel 2025 Sagaing Earthquake Archive picked it up and republished it on YouTube. 'This is the first (and currently only) known instance of a fault line motion being captured on camera,' the YouTube post reads. According to Aung, the video was filmed at GP Energy Myanmar's Thapyawa solar farm. Our planet's surface is, simply put, made up of a number of moving slabs of earth called tectonic plates. While tectonic plates move very slowly—about as fast as your fingernails—when they push or slide past each other, the build-up and then sudden release of energy can cause devastating earthquakes. Because of this, regions on or close to where tectonic plates meet, called fault lines, are prone to earthquakes. Myanmar sits on the Sagaing Fault, which runs north-south through the center of the country at the boundary between the Sunda and Burma tectonic plates. The Sagaing Fault is a strike-slip fault, meaning the two tectonic plates slide horizontally against each other, as opposed to colliding head-on. This sort of motion is glaringly evident in the video from Sunday, in which the land on the right suddenly slides past the land on the left. 'To my knowledge, this is the best video we have of a throughgoing surface rupture of a very large earthquake,' Rick Aster, a geophysicist at Colorado State University, told Live Science. 'I have no doubt that seismologists will take a very close look at this,' he added. 'It will probably lead to some kind of a publication at some point.' The most infamous fault in the world is California's San Andreas fault, which is also a strike-slip boundary. For decades, scientists have warned that the San Andreas Fault is primed to trigger an earthquake so powerful it's earned a nickname: the 'Big One.' The simple truth, however, is that seismologists have not yet found a way to predict earthquakes with any sort of accuracy—and they might never do so. So the best that we and anyone living along a fault line can do is prepare for the day it comes.
Free Malaysia Today
08-05-2025
- Climate
- Free Malaysia Today
Taiwan rattled by quake off east coast
Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is prone to earthquakes. (CNA/EPA Images pic) TAIPEI : A 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck in the sea off the east coast of Taiwan today, the island's weather administration said, with no immediate reports of damage. The quake briefly shook buildings in the capital Taipei. The quake, some 30km offshore, had a depth of 6.6km, the weather administration said. Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is prone to earthquakes. More than 100 people were killed in a quake in southern Taiwan in 2016, while a 7.3 magnitude quake killed more than 2,000 people in 1999.
