barbannco

....LOL..

Wow ...that is not a small rift either......
volcano erupted, tearing a thirty-five mile rift in the country in a matter of days. That might be slightly slower than the average Michael Bay event but it's still incredibly fast in geological terms - especially since this may well be the first sign of an incoming Ethiopian Ocean. Nature seems to like keeping us on our toes.

It's known that new oceans form as magma forces its way into rifts between tectonic plates, but since every other such system worked - and is now under miles of ocean - we can't actually get down there for a detailed look. Instead, an international collaboration of scientists both local and abroad studied the sudden "mega-dike intrusion" (a much less scary way of saying "holy hell our country just ripped open") and found that it matches all the signs for a prototype ocean bed.

The spectacular speed is what stunned scientists: it was assumed that such events occurred slowly in smaller steps, not sudden tectonic upheavals of the kind that cut the Earth itself open in less than a week. We were wrong about that. This raises important questions, both in terms of geophysical processes which shape the Earth we live on, and for anyone living within an earthquake of such a region.

Even with earthquake acceleration it'll be a long time before an Ethiopian port becomes an issue. But this sudden starting point will be an international hub of oceanographic interest until then - and with oceanographers carefully studying the African desert, it's proof that Nature has a sense of irony.

Luke McKinney

...lonely and bullied.....a leucistic penguin

..one of the best bird pics I have ever seen...well it appeals to me anyway....gorgeous

Fennec Fox.....oh so cute...:-))

...wow this is beautiful....the carvings are so intricate....LOve it

this is fascinating