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A crack like this is caused by underground forces extending over the earth’s lithosphere layer until it cracks.
Dr Stamps said: “The current breaking rate is millimeters per year, so it will be millions of years before new oceans start to form.
“The rate of expansion is faster in the north, so we’ll see new oceans forming there first.”
Dr Stamps and his colleagues have collected GPS data along this part of the African continent to map where the extension is taking place.
The East African Rift System stretches over 1,800 miles (3,000 km) from the Gulf of Aden between Yemen and Somalia, and south to Zimbabwe.
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