A 35-mile long crack in the Earth’s surface, somewhere in the remote Afar desert of Ethiopia, will eventually become a new ocean.  Unfortunately for the drought-starved Ethiopians, it won’t become an ocean tomorrow.  No, it’s a slow process that will take millions of years, but it will become an ocean one day.

So what’s so special about the rift?  Well, for starters, it opened in a matter of days.  The giant split in the ground is 20 feet wide in some places, and it just so happens to fall where the Arabian and African tectonic plates intersect.  When the volcano Dabbahu erupted, it caused the two plates to shift apart from one another.  This process of land creation is actually the same kind of  activity that takes place along the bottom of the sea, except this time it’s on land and scientists can study it.  The resulting natural phenomenon is a great glimpse at how the Earth was formed once upon a time.

Plus, in a few million years, you can go swimming there.  That’ll be nice, too.

Tags: great rift, new ocean in africa, giant crack will create new ocean, Ethiopia, geology, earth, Afar desert, Dabbahu, weird science

You can’t fault someone for having a dream, but when your dream is to weight nearly half a ton, well… you expect a little criticism.  Donna Simpson, from New Jersey, is already the world’s fattest mother (she gave birth to a daughter in 2007 while weighing 531 pounds), but that’s not enough.  She wants to […]

If you’re not pleased with the speed of your broadband Internet access, you’re not alone.  Most Americans are unhappy with something about broadband, which costs a great deal to purchase for the end user and costs a great deal for the provider to wire up for.  That’s why only about 65% of American households have […]

It’s true that the Internet, in some form or fashion, has been around since the 1960’s.  However, it was 25 years ago today that the first company registered the first .com address.  On March 15, 1985, Symbolics Computers of Cambridge, Massachusetts, registered Symbolics.com, the oldest active domain address online.  Happy 25th birthday, modern Internet!   […]

For 56 years, through good times and bad, Jim Becker has attended Green Bay Packers games.  Lots of NFL teams have dedicated fans, but so few have given as much to attend those games.  Considering Becker and his wife raised 11 children, money was generally tight.  So, to keep the tickets coming, he gave blood.  […]

Once again cultures are clashing in Dubai, where the region’s forward-thinking architecture and business plans belies the region’s backwards-thinking laws and rules.  When Ayman Najafi and a female friend were out to dinner, they exchanged a kiss of greeting, which is very common even in the Muslim world.  However, what one side claims was a […]

Most of us work in awful conditions.  For example, I work in a windowless room with concrete block walls, no air flow to speak of, and fluorescent lighting.  If we open up the doors to let the air in, then we’re stuck smelling what other people burn in the microwave down the hall.  It’s really […]

If you’re looking to see a predatory cat out in the wild, then you’ve got one place to go.  The lowland rainforest of Jeypore-Dehing, in the Assam province of India, has the most wild cats ever spotted in one location.  There are an incredible seven different cat species to be found in the area’s 354 […]