This continent is slowly splitting apart, creating a new ocean

Millions of years from now, Northern Africa could be home to a new ocean as tectonic plates pull apart along the East African Rift System, scientists say.

Experts have long known that portions of the continent are separating by as much as 0.3 inches a year in some places. Volcanic and geologic evidence in Ethiopia and elsewhere in Africa indicates the existing oceans may one day spill into the growing rift, severing a small portion of the continent from the greater bulk of Africa, according to experts.

"The region encompassing the Afar Depression and Red Sea and Gulf of Aden spreading centers is thought to broadly be the final transition away from continental rifting to the development of true oceanic spreading in the eastern Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea," scientists wrote in a 2024 study.

What's happening in Northern Africa to make a new ocean?

Scientists aren't certain a new ocean will form, but they say the geologic implications of the plates pulling apart indicate it's likely. A similar process created the nearby Saudi Arabian peninsula.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/this-continent-is-slowly-splitting-apart-creating-a-new-ocean/ar-AA1DUdBx