In April 2023, a severe crack that stretched for six Kilometres from Mai Mahiu Town occurred prompting the closure of the Mai Mahiu – Narok Highway in Kenya. The cause of the crack has not yet been established but preliminary reports attribute it to the ongoing rains since the road is prone to perennial damages. However, earth movements have in the past affected this area due to its geological setup. This movement is called plate motion or tectonic shifts. This means, the plates move, sometimes forward or away from each other due to the heat from radioactive processes within the Earth’s core.
In 2018, another large crack stretching several Kilometres opened up in South-western Kenya. This caused part of the Nairobi-Narok Highway to collapse accompanied by seismic activity in the area. This area forms part of the Rift Valley on the East.
The Earth is constantly changing whether we notice it or not. Tectonic shifts are a good example and every now and then, something dramatic happens that raises even more questions. The Earth’s lithosphere, which is formed by the crust and the upper part of the mantle, is broken up into a number of tectonic plates. These plates constantly move relative to each other at varying speeds. What causes the movement is still debated to date, but it is likely to include convention currents within the asthenosphere and the forces generated at the boundaries between plates. The most obvious evidence is the 35-mile-long crack in the Ethiopian desert.
These forces do not just move the plates around, but can also cause them to rupture, forming a rift and potentially leading to the creation of new plate boundaries like what is happening within the Rift Valley today. Furthermore, we also experience surface manifestations in the form of volcanism and seismic activity such as earthquakes or tremors.
The rift is still active. Studies allege that rifts are the initial stage of a continental break-up and, if successful, can lead to the formation of a new ocean basin. For example, the South Atlantic Ocean basin formed after the break-up of South America and Africa around 138 million years ago. The Arabian plate has, for the past 30 million years, been moving away from Africa – a process that created the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden between the two connected landmasses.
In East Africa, most of the seismicity is spread over a wide zone across the Rift Valley and is of a relatively small magnitude. Volcanism also proves the presence of the ongoing shifts within the continent and the proximity of the hot molten lava to the surface. The break is not immediate but takes between 5 to 10 million years with fault lines widening 7mm every year. If this continues, the continent may eventually split into two, creating a new ocean basin between them. This means that landlocked countries such as Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi and Zambia would resultantly find themselves with a coastline that would connect them to the rest of the world directly. Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia, on the other hand, would have two territories each.
Studies say that when the split occurs, the smaller portion containing Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, the eastern parts of Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique where the valley ends, may drift away. The remaining larger Nubian Plate will see a coastline created for the several eastern and southern Africa countries creating a new coastline would create more economic opportunities for other industries that may not have existed. However, it would also cost these countries millions of dollars in evacuation.
In the grander scheme of the giant geological storybook across the globe, will this departure just be another page or will humanity be around to see it? We can only wait and see for now.