When the process finishes, Africa will likely exist as two distinct regions. The larger western landmass would contain major nations, including Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Ghana, and Namibia, while the eastern landmass would include Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and a significant portion of Ethiopia.

“‘These findings give a unique perspective on how our planet is constantly changing and shifting right beneath our feet,’ said Professor Peter Styles, geologist at Keele University.”

The foundation for this projection lies in the theory of plate tectonics, which demonstrates that the arrangement of Earth’s continents has never been fixed. Over millions or even billions of years, large tectonic plates have fractured and drifted apart, forming new areas of oceanic crust through a process called seafloor spreading.

One of the key areas showing this active rearrangement is the East African Rift, a vast tectonic fissure stretching roughly 4,000 miles from Jordan, down through eastern Africa to Mozambique. Measuring around 30 to 40 miles wide on average, this rift marks a zone where the crust is weakening and pulling apart. As the split deepens over geological time, it is expected to cut directly through large East African lakes such as Lake Malawi and Lake Turkana.

For their analysis, researchers turned their attention to the Afar region, where the Red Sea meets the Gulf of Aden. This location is unique: three rift systems converge here, the Main Ethiopian Rift, the Red Sea Rift, and the Gulf of Aden Rift, forming a triple junction. Scientists regard Afar as the area where the earliest and most visible signs of continental breakup are already unfolding.

To better understand the mechanics of this split, experts examined magnetic data originally gathered in 1968 and 1969 by airborne instruments. Using modern techniques to reinterpret these “vintage” measurements, they uncovered new details about the magnetic signals locked into the crust. The data reflect ancient flips in Earth’s magnetic field signatures that act similarly to tree rings or barcodes and show clear evidence of seafloor spreading between Africa and Arabia tens of millions of years ago.

This magnetic imprint is considered strong proof of slow but steady rifting. The crust here appears to be thinning and stretching like pliable material until it eventually ruptures, marking the formation of a new ocean basin. Despite the dramatic implications, researchers emphasise that the movement is extremely gradual.

Dr Emma Watts, a geochemist at Swansea University, has previously stated that the shifting is occurring today at a pace of around 5 to 16 millimetres per year in the northern segment of the rift. “‘Regarding timescales, this process of Africa being torn apart will take several million years before it is completed,’ Dr Watts, who was not involved with this study, previously told the Daily Mail.”

The newly published findings in the Journal of African Earth Sciences shed additional light on the Afar region, which the authors describe as both complex and scientifically critical.

“With this publication, the magnetic data from the 1968 Afar Survey has been resurrected, we hope, from an undeserved obscurity,” they conclude. The study team believes that continued analysis using these techniques will help clarify the earliest geological stages of continental breakup and eventual ocean development.

While the changes are invisible to everyday observers, scientists say the forces reshaping Africa will one day leave a new ocean in their wake, a reminder that the ground beneath humanity’s feet is always on the move.