The Beginning of 2012?! The African Rift

[aduidarnenye]

So the movie with John Cusack is coming out this weekend and a few days ago this happened. This is very Independence Day (the day that movie came out there was a massive blackout in a large part of the US).

Huge crack splitting Africa in two - thestar.com

A massive 60-kilometre rift in eastern Africa could end up splitting the continent in two.

Africa's eastern edge has begun to crack away along a 60-kilometre rift that appeared virtually overnight.

According to a new study, the continent will eventually split along a 5,000-km line between Ethiopia in the north and Mozambique in the south. A huge new ocean will fill the gap between the resultant land masses.

The surface fault in the arid, sparsely populated region of Afar in Ethiopia appeared over the course of 10 days in September 2005, according to seismologist Atalay Ayele of Addis Ababa University. It was prompted by underground volcanic activity.

At its widest, the so-called Afar Depression is roughly a football field across. At its deepest, it goes down two kilometres.

Ayele described it Thursday "as the most exciting place on Earth" to study the large-scale seismic effects of tectonic shifting. Most faults this size appear beneath the oceans.

"It is very hostile to study under the sea," said Ayele from his office at the university. "There are only two places on the planet where you can see the transition between oceanic and continental rifts on dry land. They are Iceland and Afar. And Afar is not contaminated by glaciation."

The split is not expected any time soon. Ayele referred to a "geologic time scale" running to a million years. However, he said, "a series of volcanic events" might push that timetable up significantly, to a thousand years or so.

For now, the rift is the province of a small group of academics and the desert people who live alongside it. Some villages running alongside the rift are as much as 70 metres below sea level, putting them in danger from an opening that stretches down more than 600 storeys.

"There is life going on around (the rift)," Ayele said. "It is like a big water tower which is protected by volcanic walls. And the process is still continuing."

Are the villagers in danger?

"Yes, but the good thing is that there are nomads," he said. "They're always portable."

And yeah, I don't go for the Mayan calendar thing. Just thought the correlation was interesting.

[Mizango]

No.

[BerenTebogo]

I agree that John Cusack is the cause of all of this. Good catch OP.

[Mizango]

Independence day was released the same year the Nepalese government and Maoist rebels clashed and ignited a brutal civil war.

Coincidence? I think not.

[Kyo]

I blame Will Smith, the white people can have him.

[bigrougabagel]

if we take will smith, you get dane cook.

[Mizango]

if we take will smith, you get dane cook.

AW HELL NAH...

[Kyo]

AW HELL NAH...

Co-signed.

[Pringles]

We'll throw in Glenn Beck too

[Gulkeeva]

reminds me of the pic of 2 continents being put together making africa look like T-rex's head with his mouth open. OPEN WIDE...!

[zoobernut]

Are we throwing these people into the rift?

Makes me sad this will probably take 1 million years or longer to complete the process. It would be really cool to witness a massive global geological event in our lifetime that was not life ending. Like one day we wake up and Africa is no longer Africa but now Africa-major and the Island of Australia-2 or something along those lines.

[aduidarnenye]

I read if major geological things (which I totally don't understand) go on, it'll take a MERE thousand years.


If we're throwing people in, can we include Celine Dion? I don't like her.

[Woozie]

I say we throw Joe Leiberman in first.

Edit: And Lady Gaga. Thank you spam for reminding me she needs to die.

[Despain]

if we take will smith, you get dane cook.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_sHGRRxGGGd...+Chappelle.jpg

[bigrougabagel]

ok, you can give us kat williams and will smith for dane cook. I think thats fair.

[Sol-Blackguy]

Throw in Bill Clinton and you have a deal.

[Atreides]

ITT: The earth grows a vagina

[510Meeze]

There is a vagina in the midwest of the US, it's dry right now though.

[archibaldcrane]

There is a vagina in the midwest of the US, it's dry right now though.

ITP: People who don't know anything about the midwest.

[Qalbert]

Nigga stole half my continent