Deep Earth pulses beneath Africa tearing the continent apart– www.techexplorist.com

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Deep beneath Earth’s surface, hot mantle rock slowly rises, fueling massive volcanic activity, tearing continents apart, and opening new oceans. But where these upwellings form, what they’re made of, and how shifting tectonic plates shape them still remains a puzzle.

The Afar region in East Africa is a rare geological crossroads—a triple rift zone where three tectonic plates are pulling away from each other. Scientists think a rising plume of hot mantle lies below it, offering a unique chance to study how such forces reshape our planet from the inside out.

Deep under Africa, scientists from the University of Southampton have found that hot mantle rock is rising in steady pulses—almost like the Earth has a beating heart. This hot material is pushing up beneath the Afar region in Ethiopia, slowly pulling the continent apart and setting the stage for a brand-new ocean.

The research shows that this rising heat is shaped by the movement of tectonic plates—huge slabs of Earth’s crust that float above the mantle. As these plates stretch and thin over time, especially at places like Afar where three rifts meet, they eventually split. That split is how a new ocean begins to form.