Parts of Africa are slowly ripping themselves apart from the ground up. Deep beneath the surface, something ancient and powerful is at work, and new research suggests the process is further along than most of us ever imagined. What is more surprising? The same forces that are ripping the continent apart may have had a direct role in shaping the story of our own species.
According to a study published in Nature Geoscience by researchers at the University of Southampton, a huge plume of molten rock beneath Ethiopia's Afar region is pulsing rhythmically up from deep within the Earth like a geological heartbeat. Over millions of years, these pulses are slowly creating a brand-new ocean by stretching and thinning the crust of the African continent.
