Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey Brainstuff.
Speaker 1: Lauren Bolga Baum Here of the vast ocean that covers
Speaker 1: of the planet. It's five distinct regions, Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic,
Speaker 1: and Antarctic are memorized by school children, navigated by sailors,
Speaker 1: and inhabited by some of the most biologically diverse species
Speaker 1: in the world. But could Earth ever develop a new ocean.
Speaker 1: It seems unlikely given the monopoly that the existing ocean
Speaker 1: regions have had on the liquid portion of our planet's
Speaker 1: surface for about four million years. Yet the formation of
Speaker 1: this new ocean may already be underway. A huge rift
Speaker 1: forming in the Ethi open off Our Depression is expected
Speaker 1: by some researchers to become the world's newest ocean someday.
Speaker 1: The forty mile or sixt crack, which is in some
Speaker 1: places more than twenty ft or six meters wide, sits
Speaker 1: along a boundary of Earth's shifting tectonic plates. At the
Speaker 1: rift's northern end lies an active volcano whose two thousand
Speaker 1: five eruption helped spawn the first thirty five miles or
Speaker 1: kilometers of the rift in just ten days. The eruption
Speaker 1: was preceded by earthquakes that caused magma, that is, molten
Speaker 1: rock from inside the Earth, to gush up through the
Speaker 1: center of the crack, quickly splitting it in both directions.
Speaker 1: Since that time, magma has continued to flow like toffee,
Speaker 1: volcanoes have continued to erupt, and the deep fissure has
Speaker 1: continued to grow, albeit at a slower rate that has
Speaker 1: increased the split by several miles. The scientists are studying
Speaker 1: the process both for its remarkably fast timeline and the
Speaker 1: fact that it mirrors a process that normally takes place
Speaker 1: on the ocean floor at depths too remote to reach
Speaker 1: and study effectively. Until two thousand five, the Somali and
Speaker 1: Arabian plates that border each other in this remote desert
Speaker 1: region had been spreading apart at a snail's pace of
Speaker 1: less than one inch or two and a half centimeters
Speaker 1: a year. Over the past thirty million years, the opposing
Speaker 1: masses had only managed to form a one eighty five
Speaker 1: mile or three kilometer depression in addition to the adjacent
Speaker 1: Red Sea, but there had been no dramatic shift like
Speaker 1: the one that began in two thousand five. Eventually, many
Speaker 1: scientists expect the Afar Rift to connect the Red Sea
Speaker 1: to the north and the Arabian Sea to the south.
Speaker 1: If this happens, the Far Rift will become a new
Speaker 1: ocean that will split the African continent and release the
Speaker 1: Horn of Africa from its land mass. Even though this
Speaker 1: new ocean that may be splitting the African continent is
Speaker 1: only growing about as fast as a fingernail, scientists are
Speaker 1: monitoring the changes with bated breath. After all, the ability
Speaker 1: to witness a process that's typically inaccessible has the makings
Speaker 1: of a once in a career opportunity. Well that is
Speaker 1: until you've consider the fact that at its current rate,
Speaker 1: this new ocean will probably take another five to a
Speaker 1: hundred million years to fully form, and that's if it
Speaker 1: does at all. Other researchers contend that the complex plate
Speaker 1: tectonics going on in the region where the aforementioned Somali
Speaker 1: and Arabian plates connect with a third plate, the Nubian plate, Oh,
Speaker 1: We'll have the opposite effect in the long term. They
Speaker 1: think that the three plates will come together instead of
Speaker 1: pulling further apart, erasing the Red Sea instead of expanding it.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article could Earth ever
Speaker 1: get a New Ocean on how staff Works dot Com
Speaker 1: written by Laurie L. Dove. Brain Stuff is production of
Speaker 1: by Heart Radio and partnership with how stuff Work dot
Speaker 1: Com and is produced by Tyler Clang with assistance from
Speaker 1: Ramsey Young. Four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the
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