Experts react on possible split of Africa into two continents

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania could be divided into two, with each half belonging to a separate continent, if scientists’ long-term prediction that Africa will split in two comes to pass.

Scientists have long predicted and warned that Africa is set to split in two, a move that they say will form a new continent with Somalia and half of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania. This would also form the Earth’s sixth ocean, and countries along the southeastern coast would become one single giant island, creating an entirely new sea from Ethiopia to Mozambique.

A study shows that the East African Rift System was being driven by a massive plume of superheated rock from Earth’s core, causing deformations beneath the feature. Some Tanzanians took to social media, where they expressed worry and incomprehension about the whole situation.

“I am surprised to read that our country will be divided in two. This means that some people will have their families split. But what does this phenomenon exactly mean because people are afraid now?” Moses Taabu wrote on his Instagram page (Official_taabu) on Wednesday.

But a geologist said the split will not happen in our lifetime. He said that the splitting of the continent is caused by the splitting of tectonic plates that move away from each other, a process that may take millions of years.

“Tanzanians have no reason to worry because this will not happen during this generation or the next five or twenty generations,” said Dr Elisante Mshiu, a University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) geologist.

The plates move an inch per year, which is a geologically high speed, although it can’t resemble that of a car.

He said the situation was happening close to Tanzania because of the rift valley, which is the earth’s line of weakness due to magmatic activities.

If you use the Global Positioning System (GPS) to measure this speed, you will find that it is maybe 5cm per year, he said. “For this situation to reach one kilometre, we will need more than 1,000 years. Will we be there during that period?” he questioned.

The study, by the Geological Society of London, shows that the Eastern African Rift formed at least 22 million years ago. It has, however, shown activity over the last few decades, when a crack appeared along the deserts of Ethiopia in 2005 and is widening at a rate of one inch per year. The study, however, says while Africa is not expected to tear apart for at least another five million years, Somalia and half of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania will form a new continent when it does.

Experts don’t know whether it might speed up and get there more quickly or stall out, as the Atlantic did before it commenced true seafloor spreading.

“At the present rate, a sea about the size of the current Red Sea might form in about 20-30 million years.”

As it is, a 35-mile crack that appeared in 2005 already shows signs of a new sea near Ethiopia, according to reports. Another tore through Kenya in 2018 following heavy rainfall, forcing people to leave their homes and shutting down roadways.

Researchers believe the valley is growing larger because two tectonic plates are moving away from each other: the Somali plate in the east and the Nubian plate in the west.

The recent crack in 2018 in Kenya is being debated among the scientific community, as some believe it is showing the separation in real-time, while others believe such progression is impossible.