Scientists predicted the African continent will split in two sooner
Scientists at the University of California have put forward a new theory about when the African continent will split. About it on Thursday, January 23, writes the British tabloid Daily Mail.
"A [56.5 km] long crack in the Ethiopian desert appeared in 2005 but has been widening at a rate of [about 1.5 cm] per year since then," the publication said.
According to the new calculations, the continent's separation will occur within 1-5 million years, while previously it was thought that the process would take tens of millions of years.
"It may happen so that the waters of the Indian Ocean will rush and flood the territory where the East African Rift Valley is now located," - said Professor Ken MacDonald of the University of California.
The new continent, believes the professor, will include Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, as well as half of Ethiopia and will be called the "Nubian continent".
Earlier, the director of the astronomical observatory of Irkutsk State University and senior researcher at the Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics SB RAS Sergei Yazev told Izvestia that the increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere - perhaps not the cause, but a consequence of ocean warming.
On November 26, 2024, climatologist Arseny Yurganov said that over the past hundred years, the average temperature of the earth's surface has increased by 1.1 degrees Celsius, which has led to the melting of glaciers, rising sea levels and changing weather patterns.
