A new ocean is dividing Africa.. How do earthquakes reshape the Earth's geography?

Hardly a day has passed since Turkey and Syria were struck by two catastrophic earthquakes on the sixth of February without panic-stricken talk about earthquakes, their dangers, and their impact, especially after people knew that the earth is exposed to hundreds of powerful earthquakes annually, and that their countries announce from time to time about A light to moderate earthquake, perhaps severe, but it hits uninhabited areas, but they just weren't paying enough attention.

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But contrary to what some imagine, earthquakes are not just fatal disasters. When the earth shakes because of earthquakes, especially strong ones, their impact goes beyond buildings and people and extends to the geography of the earth itself.

In fact, earthquakes have played a role in shaping the earth over millions of years, simply because they are nothing but a symptom of many changes in the geology of the earth, such as the movements of the earth's plates, which in turn make changes in the flow of groundwater, which in the long run can reshape important areas on the surface. our planet.

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Close up of the African Rift.

(communication Web-sites)

It seems that over the past years and until now we are witnessing one of these major changes, but it is happening very slowly.

It began in 2005, when scientists spotted a giant crack more than 50 kilometers long in the desert land of Ethiopia due to seismic and volcanic activity. At that time, a team of geologists suggested that this crack would be the beginning of the emergence of a new ocean that would divide the continent of Africa into two parts, but this proposal then remained controversial.

But in 2009, the "Geophysical Research Letters" magazine published a study confirming that the African desert rift is a new ocean under formation (3), where researchers and scientists from several countries confirmed that the volcanic interactions under the Ethiopian rift are similar to those under the rest of The world's oceans, which means that region is undergoing a similar transformation.

Do our generations witness a new ocean in Africa?

But what the researchers found in this rift was arousing more interest, and made it a subject of study until our time, as this particular rift was not formed during a series of small earthquakes over a long period of time, which is usual in such cases, but most of it occurred in days Only a few, as it erupted at the northern end of it, and magma rushed through the middle of the rift area and began to pressurize the rift in both directions, which led to the expansion of its area.

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Image showing the shape of the African continent after the division.

(communication Web-sites)

It is the same way in which - for example - the Atlantic Ocean was formed, and it is still expanding by a distance of more than 20 centimeters annually, as the tectonic plates move away from each other, and at some point the hot magma comes out from the interior of the earth to cover the place where the tectonic plates move away, Then, year after year, the space expands, as it is believed that the continents of Africa, North and South America were once connected, and there was no Atlantic ocean hundreds of millions of years ago.

Contrary to what we think, the Earth is a flexible mass, and its lithosphere is not just a fixed, silent ball, but rather consists of pieces that are similar in their overlap with pieces of a puzzle or puzzle, those that need to be put together to make an image of an animal, for example, or a scene from nature, called those The overlapping pieces of tectonic plates, which are not stationary, move relative to each other very slowly, about 1-20 centimeters per year.

These tectonic plates are the cause of earthquakes, when they rub together from time to time, and therefore we find that earthquakes are common in places where tectonic plates meet, including countries such as Turkey, Chile, Japan, Indonesia and others, in addition to that these plates are also the reason for the formation of the geography of the earth over the years Time, and the theory of continental drift indicates that the Earth's continents were once one continent called "Pangea", standing as an enormous island in a very vast ocean.

The Earth's continents were once one called "Pangea".

(communication Web-sites)

It should be noted that these changes occur slowly, estimated at a fraction of an inch per year, which means that we need millions of years to reach a stage during which we can already notice the presence of a large cleavage sufficient for the passage of water in this place, let alone the formation of an ocean!

This means that our generations and the generations that follow in the coming centuries may not even witness a clear movement of this rift.

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The fault path on the map is marked with the red line.

(communication Web-sites)

The Red Sea.. born of earthquakes and earthquakes

Well, if you think that such a future is difficult to imagine, then let us tell you about something that you already know, a body of water on whose shores many of our Arab cities lie, which is the Red Sea.

Millions of years ago, the earth did not know something called the "Red Sea", but it was formed under the same conditions that are forming the new fissure in Africa now.

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The Great Rift Valley or the Great African Canyon, sometimes called by some the Syrian-African rift or the Syrian-African rift pit, are all well-known names for the geological rift that extends from West Asia to East Africa, and from southern Turkey in the north through the Levant, and the Red Sea is one of the sons of this rift.

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The Red Sea.

(communication Web-sites)

The Red Sea was formed when the Arabian Peninsula separated from Africa due to the movements of tectonic plates, and this division began in the Eocene era 5-23 million years ago, and the sea is still expanding every year by a few centimeters, and it is believed that it will also become an ocean within millions of years.

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The emergence and disappearance of Quake Island

Paradoxically, not all geographical changes in the earth following earthquakes need millions of years to form in their final form. Some changes have been witnessed by our generations themselves due to earthquakes.

In 2010, for example, an 8.8-magnitude earthquake occurred in Chile, and because of this earthquake, NASA scientists confirmed that the Earth's axis had moved by 8 centimeters, and this resulted in a slight decrease in the period of Earth's rotation around its axis, and this means The day is now 1.26 microseconds shorter, and a microsecond is a millionth of a second, so you don't have to set the clock right away.

(11) However, some of the consequences were more evident, at least for some, as the locations of some islands, such as Santa Maria Island, opposite the city of Conibén, the second largest Chilean city, whose level rose above sea level compared to the situation before the earthquake, changed.

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The earthquake island in Pakistan is another vivid example of the geographical changes and reshaping of the earth resulting from earthquakes. In 2019, the earthquake island in Pakistan completely disappeared after only 6 years of its appearance.

The "earthquake" island in Pakistan, which has gradually receded over the past few years, until its disappearance.

(NASA Earth Observatory images)

The island first appeared in 2013 due to a magnitude 7.7 earthquake that killed more than 800 people in southwestern Pakistan.

This earthquake led to cracks in the ocean floor, which allowed the mud buried in the ground to rise from the bottom to the surface of the water, carrying rocks on its way, forming an island called the earthquake island, and the island was 20 meters above the surface of the ocean and had a width of 90 meters and a length of 40 meters (10), and since then the island has been eroding day by day until its complete disappearance was observed in 2019.

In linguistic expressions, the Earth is usually used as a synonym for stability, and the Earth may indeed seem stable from afar, but the truth is that the Earth is in a permanent state of change and reshaping, and when we take a quick look at the history of the Earth, we will find that this planet has always found a safe way out for itself from disasters to which he is exposed, and if the flood floods a place more than once;

Its soil has become more fertile, and if an epidemic hits the earth, it kills people;

The environment regains its balance, and if earthquakes hit the earth with their harshness;

It reshapes its geography in a way that people may not expect, given their short-sightedness and deadlines.

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