Earths Largest Crack

Appeared in 2005
In the African country of Ethiopia.

<>Ethiopia is a beautiful country situated in Eastern Africa near the Red Sea. It is one of the oldest countries in the world and was the home of the Queen of Sheba.Following the death of Haile Selassie, there was a civil war Ethiopia until 1991, when a transitional government was formed. The 17 years of civil war bankrupted the country and left thousands of orphaned children. Ethiopia adopted a constitution in 1994 and held their first democratic elections in 1995.

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Ethiopia could be a unique and superb ocean-ridge laboratory. In 2005, a gigantic, 35-mile-long rift broke open the desert ground. Scientists have confirmed that the volcanic processes at work beneath the Ethiopian rift are nearly identical to those at the bottom of the world’s oceans, and the rift is indeed likely the beginning of a new sea

Seismic data from 2005 shows that the rift opened in a matter of days. Dabbahu, a volcano at the northern end of the rift, erupted first, then magma pushed up through the middle of the rift and began “unzipping” the rift in both directions, the researchers explained in a statement today. “We know that seafloor ridges are created by a similar intrusion of magma into a rift, but we never knew that a huge length of the ridge could break open at once like this”

The photo, right, was taken just north of the above image, looking toward Djibouti. It is the road to Djibouti.