The East African Rift and African Highlands

The East African Rift is one of the clearest examples on Earth of a continental rift in active formation: it marks the divergent boundary along which the Somali Plate is pulling away from the larger Nubian (African) Plate, a process that has been underway for roughly the last 25 to 30 million years and continues today at a rate of only a few millimeters per year. Geologists generally project that, given enough time, perhaps five to ten million years, continued spreading will eventually flood the rift with seawater and split East Africa into a separate landmass, much as the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, which meet the rift at the Afar Triple Junction in Ethiopia, are themselves believed to have formed. The Afar region, including the Danakil Depression, lies below sea level and exposes the only place on Earth where an active oceanic-style spreading center can be studied directly on dry land.