In the arid deserts of Ethiopia, a geological marvel has been quietly unfolding since 2005—a 35-mile-long fissure known as the East African Rift. Far from being a mere curiosity, this rift holds the ...

As well as the basalt that is erupted into the valley and injected into the rocks below to create new ocean floor, sedimentary rocks will also be deposited within the rift valley. At first the rift ...

Scientists estimate it will take at least 5 to 10 million years for the Afar region to be fully submerged. When that happens, ...

The formation of a sixth ocean could bring significant ... while the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea could flood the East African Rift Valley, forming a new ocean. However, complete continental ...

Harry Hess became a professor of geology at Princeton in 1932 ... With the discovery in 1953 of the Great Global Rift, a volcanic valley running along the midocean ridges, Hess looked back ...