Deep beneath the surface of Africa, something extraordinary is happening: The Earth’s mantle beneath Ethiopia is pulsing like a slow, steady heartbeat. This underground rhythm, though invisible to us, is causing a dramatic geological transformation. It is slowly tearing Africa apart and laying the groundwork for a new ocean.
This process is unfolding in the Afar Triangle region of Ethiopia, where the Nubian, Somali, and Arabian tectonic plates meet. This area is part of the East African Rift, a vast crack in the Earth’s surface that has been forming for millions of years and pulling those plates away from one another.
However, recent research revealed something even more dynamic. Waves of molten rock are rising from deep within the Earth’s mantle in periodic, pulsing surges.
These pulses are called mantle upwellings. Each pulse pushes magma upward in bursts, weakening the crust above it, resulting in volcanic eruptions and seismic activity.
Map of the East African Rift Valley © USGS
New ocean basin forming
It is impossible to study the exact place where the plates all diverge from each other, but researchers can examine surface volcanic rocks from the Afar region. After looking at samples from 130 young volcanoes in the area, they combined chemical analysis with geological data and modeling. This showed them that the upwelling is not a uniform plume.
“We found that the mantle beneath Afar is not uniform or stationary — it pulses,” explained lead author Emma Watts.
As the molten rock from deep within the Earth rises, it pushes the African tectonic plates away from one another. This process will take millions of years, but when the pulses eventually cleave apart the continent, a new ocean basin will form.
While this transformation is unfolding on a geologic time scale — far too slowly to witness during a human lifetime — it gives scientists a rare chance to study how continents break apart.
