Video and images of a massive chasm in Kenya have gone viral. Rifting in the great rift valley is hardly breaking news. But what is new, is that the rifting can now be seen in real time thanks to heavy rainfall and drone video.
First some background. The East African Rift Valley stretches over 1,874 miles from the “Gulf of Aden in the north towards Zimbabwe in the south, splitting the African plate into two unequal parts: the Somali and Nubian plates. Activity along the eastern branch of the rift valley, running along Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania, became evident when the large crack suddenly appeared in south-western Kenya”.
After heavy rains and seismic activities in early March, the earth split open at Kenya’s Rift Valley. The split has left a massive chasm more than 50 feet deep and more than 50 feet wide. It is weaving it’s way through prime agricultural land causing seismic activity and impacting local residents lives.
“The Great Rift splits Africa into two plates. With what is happening we have established one plate which is the Somali plate is moving away from the other plate at a rate of 2.5cm. In the near future if this happens we shall have the Somali plate separating from the other Nubian plate,” Kenyan geologist David Ahede tells local media Daily Nation.
He said that earth movements have resulted in weaknesses and the weak zones form fault lines and fissures which are normally filled by volcanic ash, most likely from the nearby Mt Longonot.
He believes the origin of the movements is a shield volcano called Suswa that lies at the base of the Great Rift Valley with a history of tectonic and volcanic activity.
“You cannot stop a geological process because it occurs from deep within the crust of the Earth,” he said, adding that more studies need to be conducted to understand the geology of the area and map the fault lines.
The Conversation expands on the story.
The Earth is an ever-changing planet, even though in some respects change might be almost unnoticeable to us. Plate tectonics is a good example of this. But every now and again something dramatic happens and leads to renewed questions about the African continent splitting in two.
The Earth’s lithosphere (formed by the crust and the upper part of the mantle) is broken up into a number of tectonic plates. These plates are not static, but move relative to each other at varying speeds, “gliding” over a viscous asthenosphere. Exactly what mechanism or mechanisms are behind their movement is still debated, but are likely to include convection currents within the asthenosphere and the forces generated at the boundaries between plates.
These forces do not simply move the plates around, they can also cause plates to rupture, forming a rift and potentially leading to the creation of new plate boundaries. The East African Rift system is an example of where this is currently happening.
For more technical reporting see Forbes article here.
The Great Rift maybe played also an important role in our evolution. Many sites where fossils of early hominids were found are located in or near the rift valley. Maybe the rift formed an ideal landscape for our ancestors or, in contrast, as the rift slowly widened, forming a barrier for moisture from the Indian ocean, it forced our early ancestors to leave the dying pluvial forests. Venturing out into the open and dry savannah they adopted a bipedal locomotion and as their hands became free for the use of tools, slowly the brain evolved becoming larger and larger over time. Research published last year suggests even that a surge in volcanic activity along the East African Rift System might have forced early humans out of Africa, altering the course of our evolution forever.
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