Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey Brainstuff. Lauren Bolga Baum Here of the vast ocean that covers of the planet. It's five distinct regions, Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and Antarctic are memorized by school children, navigated by sailors, and inhabited by some of the most biologically diverse species in the world. But could Earth ever develop a new ocean.
It seems unlikely given the monopoly that the existing ocean regions have had on the liquid portion of our planet's surface for about four million years. Yet the formation of this new ocean may already be underway. A huge rift forming in the Ethi open off Our Depression is expected by some researchers to become the world's newest ocean someday. The forty mile or sixt crack, which is in some places more than twenty ft or six meters wide, sits
along a boundary of Earth's shifting tectonic plates. At the rift's northern end lies an active volcano whose two thousand five eruption helped spawn the first thirty five miles or kilometers of the rift in just ten days. The eruption was preceded by earthquakes that caused magma, that is, molten rock from inside the Earth, to gush up through the center of the crack, quickly splitting it in both directions.
Since that time, magma has continued to flow like toffee, volcanoes have continued to erupt, and the deep fissure has continued to grow, albeit at a slower rate that has increased the split by several miles. The scientists are studying the process both for its remarkably fast timeline and the fact that it mirrors a process that normally takes place on the ocean floor at depths too remote to reach
and study effectively. Until two thousand five, the Somali and Arabian plates that border each other in this remote desert region had been spreading apart at a snail's pace of less than one inch or two and a half centimeters a year. Over the past thirty million years, the opposing masses had only managed to form a one eighty five mile or three kilometer depression in addition to the adjacent Red Sea, but there had been no dramatic shift like
the one that began in two thousand five. Eventually, many scientists expect the Afar Rift to connect the Red Sea to the north and the Arabian Sea to the south. If this happens, the Far Rift will become a new ocean that will split the African continent and release the Horn of Africa from its land mass. Even though this new ocean that may be splitting the African continent is only growing about as fast as a fingernail, scientists are
monitoring the changes with bated breath. After all, the ability to witness a process that's typically inaccessible has the makings of a once in a career opportunity. Well that is until you've consider the fact that at its current rate, this new ocean will probably take another five to a hundred million years to fully form, and that's if it
does at all. Other researchers contend that the complex plate tectonics going on in the region where the aforementioned Somali and Arabian plates connect with a third plate, the Nubian plate, Oh, We'll have the opposite effect in the long term. They think that the three plates will come together instead of pulling further apart, erasing the Red Sea instead of expanding it. Today's episode is based on the article could Earth ever get a New Ocean on how staff Works dot Com
written by Laurie L. Dove. Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio and partnership with how stuff Work dot Com and is produced by Tyler Clang with assistance from Ramsey Young. Four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.