A big part of East Africa is breaking away from the African continent. Scientists studied a long, deep crack in Zambia. The crack is called a rift. A geologist is studying it. He believes it shows that a giant piece of land is breaking away. He said there was evidence that the rift is active and that other rifts are too. He warned that this may be an early sign of the break-up of sub-Saharan Africa.
The land on Earth is always moving. Three hundred million years ago, there was one supercontinent. Over millions of years, it broke up. Giant areas of land moved across the oceans to become today's continents. Rifts are one reason why continents split apart. The rift in Zambia is part of a 2,500-kilometre-long crack. It is moving very slowly. It will take millions of years for Africa to split in two. In 200 million years, there could be just one supercontinent again.
Try the same news story at these levels:
Africa - Level 0, Africa - Level 2 or Africa - Level 3
Sources- https://www.newscientist.com/article/2526136-a-new-tectonic-plate-boundary-could-be-forming-in-southern-africa/
- https://www.sciencealert.com/first-signatures-of-a-future-tectonic-split-are-bubbling-up-in-zambia
- https://www.theweathernetwork.com/en/news/science/earth-science/a-new-ocean-could-be-forming-as-africa-splits-apart
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