WEBVTT - Could Earth Gain a New Ocean?

0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:07.360
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey Brainstuff.

0:00:07.440 --> 0:00:11.240
<v Speaker 1>Lauren Bolga Baum Here of the vast ocean that covers

0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:17.720
<v Speaker 1>of the planet. It's five distinct regions, Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic,

0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:22.440
<v Speaker 1>and Antarctic are memorized by school children, navigated by sailors,

0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:26.000
<v Speaker 1>and inhabited by some of the most biologically diverse species

0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:30.440
<v Speaker 1>in the world. But could Earth ever develop a new ocean.

0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:34.560
<v Speaker 1>It seems unlikely given the monopoly that the existing ocean

0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:36.880
<v Speaker 1>regions have had on the liquid portion of our planet's

0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:40.640
<v Speaker 1>surface for about four million years. Yet the formation of

0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:45.040
<v Speaker 1>this new ocean may already be underway. A huge rift

0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:48.560
<v Speaker 1>forming in the Ethi open off Our Depression is expected

0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:52.720
<v Speaker 1>by some researchers to become the world's newest ocean someday.

0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:57.120
<v Speaker 1>The forty mile or sixt crack, which is in some

0:00:57.200 --> 0:01:00.600
<v Speaker 1>places more than twenty ft or six meters wide, sits

0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:04.760
<v Speaker 1>along a boundary of Earth's shifting tectonic plates. At the

0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:08.480
<v Speaker 1>rift's northern end lies an active volcano whose two thousand

0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:11.720
<v Speaker 1>five eruption helped spawn the first thirty five miles or

0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:16.600
<v Speaker 1>kilometers of the rift in just ten days. The eruption

0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:19.839
<v Speaker 1>was preceded by earthquakes that caused magma, that is, molten

0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:22.720
<v Speaker 1>rock from inside the Earth, to gush up through the

0:01:22.720 --> 0:01:26.080
<v Speaker 1>center of the crack, quickly splitting it in both directions.

0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:31.520
<v Speaker 1>Since that time, magma has continued to flow like toffee,

0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:35.640
<v Speaker 1>volcanoes have continued to erupt, and the deep fissure has

0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:39.040
<v Speaker 1>continued to grow, albeit at a slower rate that has

0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:43.320
<v Speaker 1>increased the split by several miles. The scientists are studying

0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:46.720
<v Speaker 1>the process both for its remarkably fast timeline and the

0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:49.760
<v Speaker 1>fact that it mirrors a process that normally takes place

0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:52.760
<v Speaker 1>on the ocean floor at depths too remote to reach

0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:58.320
<v Speaker 1>and study effectively. Until two thousand five, the Somali and

0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:01.559
<v Speaker 1>Arabian plates that border each other in this remote desert

0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:04.680
<v Speaker 1>region had been spreading apart at a snail's pace of

0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:06.880
<v Speaker 1>less than one inch or two and a half centimeters

0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:11.079
<v Speaker 1>a year. Over the past thirty million years, the opposing

0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:14.160
<v Speaker 1>masses had only managed to form a one eighty five

0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:18.119
<v Speaker 1>mile or three kilometer depression in addition to the adjacent

0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:21.760
<v Speaker 1>Red Sea, but there had been no dramatic shift like

0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:26.600
<v Speaker 1>the one that began in two thousand five. Eventually, many

0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:30.040
<v Speaker 1>scientists expect the Afar Rift to connect the Red Sea

0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:32.280
<v Speaker 1>to the north and the Arabian Sea to the south.

0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:35.880
<v Speaker 1>If this happens, the Far Rift will become a new

0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:38.800
<v Speaker 1>ocean that will split the African continent and release the

0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:42.919
<v Speaker 1>Horn of Africa from its land mass. Even though this

0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:46.040
<v Speaker 1>new ocean that may be splitting the African continent is

0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:49.720
<v Speaker 1>only growing about as fast as a fingernail, scientists are

0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:54.080
<v Speaker 1>monitoring the changes with bated breath. After all, the ability

0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:57.760
<v Speaker 1>to witness a process that's typically inaccessible has the makings

0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:01.200
<v Speaker 1>of a once in a career opportunity. Well that is

0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:03.919
<v Speaker 1>until you've consider the fact that at its current rate,

0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:07.400
<v Speaker 1>this new ocean will probably take another five to a

0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:10.600
<v Speaker 1>hundred million years to fully form, and that's if it

0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:14.840
<v Speaker 1>does at all. Other researchers contend that the complex plate

0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:18.440
<v Speaker 1>tectonics going on in the region where the aforementioned Somali

0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:22.000
<v Speaker 1>and Arabian plates connect with a third plate, the Nubian plate, Oh,

0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:25.880
<v Speaker 1>We'll have the opposite effect in the long term. They

0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:28.640
<v Speaker 1>think that the three plates will come together instead of

0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:32.800
<v Speaker 1>pulling further apart, erasing the Red Sea instead of expanding it.

0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:41.600
<v Speaker 1>Today's episode is based on the article could Earth ever

0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:43.640
<v Speaker 1>get a New Ocean on how staff Works dot Com

0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:46.680
<v Speaker 1>written by Laurie L. Dove. Brain Stuff is production of

0:03:46.680 --> 0:03:48.720
<v Speaker 1>by Heart Radio and partnership with how stuff Work dot

0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:51.000
<v Speaker 1>Com and is produced by Tyler Clang with assistance from

0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:54.760
<v Speaker 1>Ramsey Young. Four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the

0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:57.360
<v Speaker 1>I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

0:03:57.400 --> 0:04:07.880
<v Speaker 1>to your favorite shows.