Scientists have recently announced that new satellite data supports the idea that the African continent is splitting in two thanks to tectonic movement and that this split will create a new ocean.

In East Africa, especially in the Afar region of Ethiopia, the hot climate is causing the tectonic plates to move away from each other. This region lies on three tectonic plates, namely the Nubian, Somali and Arabian plates. 

Rifts are occurring along the entire area where the African continent is predicted to split. 

According to Christopher Moore, a PhD student at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom, who has specifically used satellite radar to monitor volcanic activity, "this area of ??Africa is the only place on Earth where you can study how the continental rift becomes an oceanic rift.

So the only place on the planet where a continent can be split in two.

According to Moore, the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea will overflow over the Afar region and into the East African Rift Valley and become a new ocean.

However, even though such oceans have formed in the past, they usually take millions of years to develop the size and characteristics of a full ocean.

If there is any change in this direction, then this will be an important development in the field of geology and geophysics.

Source: The African Channel, NBC News, Euronews.al