Daily Mail: African Continent to Split Sooner Than Expected

The 35-mile (56.5 km) long crack in the Ethiopian desert opened in 2005 but has been growing at a rate of half an inch (about 1.5 cm) every year since then, the publication said.

University of California professor Ken MacDonald, citing new calculations, said the continent would split within one to five million years. Earlier, scientists predicted that the process would take tens of millions of years.

"What could happen is that the waters of the Indian Ocean could rush in and flood the area that is now the East African Rift Valley," McDonald suggested.

The authors of the article, in turn, clarified that after the split of Africa, a new continent and another ocean may appear on Earth, which may become as deep as the Atlantic.

The new landmass, according to the professor, could be called the "Nubian Continent." It would include Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, and half of Ethiopia.

As McDonald emphasized, despite the fact that the crack is growing extremely slowly, the fault is still "impressive given the enormous size of Africa."