The continent of Africa is splitting apart—and this breakup may be happening faster than scientists originally thought. That’s according to researchers at Columbia University in New York who recently investigated the Turkana Rift, a valley spanning the East African countries of Ethiopia and Kenya.
Along the rift, Earth’s crust—or rocky outer layer—is separating at a speed of 4.7 to 9 millimeters (0.2 to 0.4 inches) per year. The researchers discovered that the crust at the center of the rift is only 13 kilometers (8 miles) thick, while the surrounding crust is 35 km (22 mi) thick. “It’s like pulling a piece of taffy from both ends,” says Christian Rowan, a geoscientist who worked on the project. “It gets thinner in the middle and easier to pull apart.”
This could mean that East Africa is on track to separate from the main continent in only a few million years. On a geological time scale, that’s pretty soon!