Researchers led by Christian Rowan found the crust beneath Kenya and Ethiopia’s Turkana Rift is only 13 kilometers thick at its center, much thinner than the 35 kilometers outside the rift.
This thinning, known as 'necking,' marks a critical stage in rifting and suggests Eastern Africa is further along in continental breakup than previously believed, potentially leading to new seafloor formation in millions of years.
The findings also challenge assumptions about the region’s fossil record, proposing that geological conditions, not just evolutionary activity, helped preserve over 1,200 hominin fossils, offering new insights into human evolution and tectonic processes.
Is a giant mantle plume from Earth's core really tearing Africa apart?
How did ancient climate change and shrinking lakes speed up Africa's continental breakup?
Was Africa's 'Cradle of Humankind' just a better place to make fossils?
What immediate dangers does this accelerating continental split pose to the region?
How will the birth of a new ocean in Africa reshape our world map?
When a continent splits, who will own the new coastline and ocean?