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Ocean Shows Up In The Middle of Africa

io9.com — At the same time as Paraguay is drying up, Africa is ripping open, a slow process that will result in the emergence of a whole new ocean, according to Scientific American. The rip you see above can't be resewn — as Eitan Haddock's photographs document. Last year, scientists watched an 8 meter rip in the earth appear in only three weeks.

Who dugg this? Made popular Oct 1, 2008

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116 Comments

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  • Indierocka, on 10/01/2008, -1/+128Dare i say this news is groundbreaking?
  • cusoman, on 10/01/2008, -2/+77Snatch up that future Ocean-front property now people, for your great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great grandkids!
  • robwooldridge, on 10/01/2008, -1/+65FYA: "Ten million years from now the entire rift may be submerged."
    so we have some time to react, it looks like.
  • diggstown, on 10/01/2008, -6/+65A new ocean is cause for a celebration. We should all buy go-carts to celebrate.
  • oli35, on 10/01/2008, -3/+38You can't paint flames on an ocean
  • shipwreck58, on 10/01/2008, -1/+36SCIENCE!
  • twelfthofmarch, on 09/30/2008, -2/+26What I wanna know is did he sing "When the going gets tough, the tough get going" ?
  • Falldog, on 10/01/2008, -2/+24People who are really interested in the shifting of continents, the creation and destruction of oceans, etc should watch How the Earth Was Made which has been airing recently on History. (or as seen on Amazon, http://www.amazon.com/How-Earth-Made-History-Chann ... It follows the history of the planet from day one through all the environmental, geological, and animal changes.
  • leif777, on 10/01/2008, -0/+21boooooo!!!!.... (dugg)
  • inactive, on 10/01/2008, -1/+22From Ye Article?
  • leif777, on 10/01/2008, -0/+19best i can do : http://www.sciam.com/slideshow.cfm?id=birth-of-an- ...
  • robwooldridge, on 10/01/2008, -0/+18My Bad.
    FYOA: "Ten million years from now the entire rift may be submerged."
    (From Ye Olde Article)
    won't happen again
  • DivisibleByZero, on 10/01/2008, -5/+19Making oceans appear in places where there weren't oceans before? Isn't this the same thing the Bush administration did to New Orleans a few years back?
  • Haecceity, on 10/01/2008, -0/+12So basically this is a copy of a BBC article from 2005 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4512244.stm) , where it says "The team watched an 8m rift develop in the ground in just three weeks in the Afar desert region last September" and the idiot plagiarist at io9 didn't even bother to change the "last year" reference.
  • brb1031, on 10/01/2008, -0/+11I don't suppose some crazy white man has been buying up worthless sunny, sandy desert?

    Sounds like Lex Luthor is going for another shot at beach front property.

    Slide show of the East African Rift:
    http://www.sciam.com/slideshow.cfm?id=birth-of-an- ...
  • Xibby, on 10/01/2008, -0/+10MAGIC!
  • 0livero, on 10/01/2008, -0/+9Ah, yes. Good to see things are going swimmingly in Africa.
  • scitz0frenic, on 10/01/2008, -0/+9I just knew someone would blame Bush for this
  • apackofmonkeys, on 10/01/2008, -0/+8I knew before I even expanded cusoman's replies that one of them would be from a smartass making a comment along the lines of this one.
  • mecharabbit, on 10/01/2008, -2/+10You forgot this:

    http://www.instantrimshot.com/
  • Rooobbbbb, on 10/01/2008, -0/+8That's pretty cool.
  • dafragsta, on 10/01/2008, -0/+6... born this week are two new internet memes. Go-carts and flames and pork brains in millk gravy.
  • DivisibleByZero, on 10/01/2008, -1/+7The jump is the "more>>" link when you're looking at the story's shortened description on the main blog page.

    What I don't get is why they don't bother to hide the "after the jump" text when you're reading the actual article.
  • NovaPrime9, on 10/01/2008, -0/+6There is no Dana, only Zuul.
  • davidjunit, on 10/01/2008, -0/+6Shyeah, QUICK! The Earth is changing! DO SOMETHING TO STOP IT!@# We could build a series of concrete posts that reach deep into the crust on each side of the tear and secure them together to prevent further harm.
  • Nenb, on 10/01/2008, -0/+6Your definition of Ocean (taken from your link) is: "Geologically, an ocean is an area of oceanic crust covered by water."

    What is happening here: An oceanic crust is formning in an area that will in time be covered by water.

    I have no idea why you are protesting against the notion that what is formning is in fact an ocean.
  • inactive, on 10/01/2008, -0/+6Then maybe someone will fly over the Moronic ocean in a rocket suit.
  • mjwhip, on 10/01/2008, -0/+5As our medical knowledge increases so does the average life expectancy, therefore, the last few "greats" should be living 5-6k years.
  • ryleyleckie, on 10/01/2008, -0/+5kewl isn't
  • Spoomeister, on 10/01/2008, -1/+6Isn't a hole in the middle of a landmass that has water in it... a lake?
  • mnemy, on 10/01/2008, -0/+4We shall call the resulting new continent: Petoria
  • 4ntHony, on 10/02/2008, -0/+4BILL! BILL! BILL! BILL! BILL!
  • inactive, on 10/01/2008, -1/+5Does anyone have a link to a map of what this Ocean will look like?
  • p3ngwin, on 10/02/2008, -0/+4BOOBIES!
  • mecharabbit, on 10/01/2008, -0/+4I like my oceanic crust covered by marinara sauce and mozzarella.
  • DrummerAndrew, on 10/01/2008, -0/+4George Bush hates wet people!
  • geek2slick, on 10/01/2008, -0/+4GO PLATE TECTONICS!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • zadadka, on 10/01/2008, -0/+3Put your analyst on danger money.
  • DrummerAndrew, on 10/01/2008, -0/+3The water is on the way. It will take so long because it's coming from Afar.
  • Nenb, on 10/01/2008, -0/+3Because the definition on a friggin ocean, according to Wikipedia is: Geologically, an ocean is an area of oceanic crust covered by water. Which is exactly what this is going to be. However, in common tongue ocean also means huge body of water.

    This is kind of like the discrepancy between the public perception of the word "theory" and the scientific use of the same.
  • lovek, on 10/01/2008, -5/+8Unless it says these "rips" are caused by God trying to stab us when we think happy thoughts about Obama, I'm not interested.

    (I'm Sarah Palin, and I approved this message.)
  • Logicexe, on 10/01/2008, -0/+3I think I've got deja vu
  • paradisetonight, on 10/01/2008, -0/+3oh *****! free ocean!
  • inactive, on 10/01/2008, -0/+2The rift valley will likely not form a new ocean. It is the failed arm of the Afar triple junction. The Red Sea is already a narrow sea, as is the Gulf of Aden. Both have well developed and active oceanic rift zones. You cannot just shut them off. There are lots of examples of such failed continental rift systems. The Connecticut Valley, Baltic Sea, New Madrid Rift, Cameroon, Persian Gulf. Sure there is lots of volcanism in the Great Rift Valley, and some incursion of ocean water in the Afar Triangle. But compare that to the sea floor spreading rates in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and it is quite small. Nature has already made its choice. The Rift Valley is the failed arm.
  • bossgalaga, on 10/01/2008, -5/+7(+1) Go-kart for you, sir.
  • SLockhart, on 10/01/2008, -0/+2I think that ocean is missing an essential element. The science is interesting the headline is terrible.
  • razorsedge555, on 10/01/2008, -1/+3You must be joking.
  • inactive, on 10/01/2008, -0/+2That's incredible! Thanks for the link.
  • grillcover, on 10/01/2008, -0/+2scroll bar != 'jump'

    but god forbid someone who visits a tech blog should be expected to be 'curious' before 'offended'
  • DreKor, on 10/01/2008, -0/+2[citation needed]
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