Is the African Continent Splitting Up?

Plenty of news reports this week saying "An Enormous Crack Just Opened Up In Africa, Evidence Africa Is Literally Splitting In Two." But is the continent splitting apart because tectonic plates are at work?

You probably learned in school that a continent can split in two. That is what led to the opening of the Atlantic Ocean. I remember a teacher showing me in elementary school Africa and South America fit perfectly together because they were once one landmass. I was mazed! They were split apart by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

Scientists have known that there was rifting in Africa, but they are split on the cause. Is it from a superplume upwelling along the eastern edge of Africa?



In the past week, a massive crack suddenly appeared in Kenya's Rift Valley and that got the attention of the media. Heavy rainfall is also helping the crack continue to grow in size to being a kilometer-sized chasm.

A regional zone of weakness figures into the hypothesis that the breakup of the continent is caused by that underlying superheated plume that is "burning" through the land.

Yes, this large crack in East Africa is evidence of the continent splitting in two. But, like many geologic changes, the rifting process will take many millions of years as the crust begins to thin and sink and a small seaway begins to intrude the rift zone. Still, to see it happening is pretty amazing. Yes, one day there will be another smaller continent and a new ocean.

Da Vinci and Geology, Fossils and the Bible

Leonardo da Vinci understood geology based on physical evidence he found. His studies of rocks, fossils, and river erosion led him to the conclusion that the world is far older than stated in the book of Genesis, and he argued that marine fossils found in the mountains were the result of falling sea levels, not the Great Flood.

He wrote:

And a little beyond the sandstone conglomerate, a tufa has been formed, where it turned towards Castel Florentino; farther on, the mud was deposited in which the shells lived, and which rose in layers according to the levels at which the turbid Arno flowed into that sea. And from time to time the bottom of the sea was raised, depositing these shells in layers, as may be seen in the cutting at Colle Gonzoli, laid open by the Arno which is wearing away the base of it; in which cutting the said layers of shells are very plainly to be seen in clay of a bluish colour, and various marine objects are found there.

A page of Leonardo's Paris Manuscript I is covered in sketches of marine fossils.

Among them is a honeycomb-like array of hexagons that palaeontologists think might constitute the first recorded observation of an enigmatic trace fossil called Paleodictyon.




He recognized fossils as petrified remains of former living organisms and even applied paleoecological principles to reconstruct the deposition of sedimentary rocks. Of course, he never published his notebooks and his theories were not well known during and for many years after his death.

Later, Nicolas Steno (1638-1686), with his stratigraphic principles, Robert Hooke (1635-1703), with his paleontological interpretation of fossils, and finally James Hutton (1726-1797), with his earth-theory, would make discoveries and theories that would have an impact on scientific thinking.