For over 2 million years, the Earth has been playing with pulling apart its plates in a region of Ethiopia called the Afar. A new study shows how the volcanoes, acting like witnesses, reveal how this rift has gradually focused over time. Fascinating !
Imagine the Earth is a giant pizza dough! In the Afar desert in Ethiopia, it’s slowly stretching, as if the dough is being pulled in all directions. And sometimes… it cracks! This is called a rift. Scientists studied ancient lava flows to understand how this opening formed. The result? Between 2 and 2.5 million years ago, the tear was wide, but over time it became focused on small, very active zones with many volcanoes. Thanks to this research, we better understand how a continent can start to break apart to eventually—maybe—form a new ocean !
