The splitting in half of the African continent has been verified by geologists as the creation of a new ocean. A 35-mile-long rift that emerged in the Ethiopian deserts of the Far region in 2005 and is likely the beginning of a brand-new sea has been discovered owing to an international effort.

"This is the only place on Earth where you can study how continental rift becomes an oceanic rift," explained Christopher Moore, a Ph.D. doctoral student at the University of Leeds, via NBC News.

According to recent research, which was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, seismic data from the rift formation were combined to show that it is driven by processes that are similar to those at the bottom of the ocean.

The tectonic plates of Africa and Arabia have been slowly drifting apart for about 30 million years. The Red Sea has also been split by the same motion, though it only does so at a pace of a few thousandths of an inch per year.

Additionally, the Somali plate is also moving away from the African plate - peeling its way through the East African Rift Valley.

Ken Macdonald, a marine geophysicist and professor emeritus based at the University of California, explained, "With GPS measurements, you can measure rates of movement down to a few millimetres per year.

"The Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea will flood in over the Afar region and into the East African Rift Valley and become a new ocean, and that part of East Africa will become its own separate small continent," Macdonald confirmed.

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