The splitting apart of the African Plate in the East African Rift Valley shows how continents change and oceans are created through the process of plate tectonics.<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The huge, brittle tectonic plates that make up Earth’s crust normally move only a few centimeters per year, not fast enough to be noticeable in a human lifetime. However, in the East African Rift Valley, this tectonic motion is happening with remarkable speed.<\/p>\n

The East African Rift System<\/h3>\n

The East African Rift System is the most extensive continental rift zone on Earth, as well as one of the most active geologic regions. Stretching more than 6,000 km (3,700 miles), it begins in Lebanon and Syria to the north, proceeds along the Red Sea where it marks the boundary between the African and Arabian Plates, and continues through to Mozambique in the south.<\/p>\n

The area of east Africa is defined by extremes. Volcanic activity along the Great Rift Valley has produced some of the world’s highest mountains, including Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Kenya, while the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia is one of the lowest points on the planet.<\/p>\n

The Afar Triangle, which includes north-eastern Ethiopia, Djibouti and the southern Red Sea region of Eritrea, is the location of a tectonic triple junction where three tectonic plates meet. These three plates are moving away from each other due to an upwelling of magma from the mantle, which melts the crust and causes it to thin and pull apart. The phenomenon is similar to that which occurs at the mid-ocean ridges, where hot magma rises up and pushes the oceanic crust out to each side in the process of seafloor spreading, but it is rarely observed on Earth’s surface.<\/p>\n

The African Plate is Tearing Apart, Forming a New Plate and Ocean Basin<\/h3>\n

Recent tectonic activity in the East African Rift Valley has created vast fissures where the African Plate is being split into two parts. The Nubian Plate that comprises most of the African continent, and the Somalian Plate, on the eastern coast, are moving in opposite directions at what is known as a divergent plate boundary. As the plates pull apart, a new ocean will eventually form, and the Horn of Africa will separate from the rest of the continent, becoming an island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n <\/p>\n The dam may affect the people who live around Lake Turkana<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n \ufeff<\/h1>\n Web campaign against Ethiopia Gibe III dam<\/span><\/h1>\n BBC <\/span><\/p>\n age last updated at 14:48 GMT, Tuesday, 23 March 2010<\/p>\n A group of international campaigners has launched an online petition against Ethiopia’s huge Gibe III dam project.<\/strong><\/p>\n The group wants to put pressure on Western donors and banks not to fund the dam, saying it would destroy the livelihoods of some 500,000 people.<\/p>\n The dam is on the Omo River, which flows from southern Ethiopia into Lake Turkana in northern Kenya.<\/p>\n Ethiopia’s government says the dam is needed to generate enough electricity for its population and to sell abroad.<\/p>\n Construction work is under way on the dam, which would be Africa’s second largest hydro-electric dam, providing some 1,800 megawatts of electricity.<\/p>\n ‘Very sensible’<\/strong><\/p>\n But one of the groups, International Rivers, says the government still needs about $1.4bn (\u00a3930m) to finish it.<\/p>\n “Gibe III is the most destructive dam under construction in Africa. The project will condemn half a million of the region’s most vulnerable people to hunger and conflict,” said Terri Hathaway, director of International Rivers’ Africa programme.<\/p>\n The dam would flood a huge area, creating a 150km-long lake and preventing people from planting their crops on the river’s flood plains, as they have done for many generations.<\/p>\n Campaigners also fear that the dam would reduce the flow of water into Lake Turkana, which some 300,000 people depend on.<\/p>\n However, Ethiopia’s government disputes that the overall amount of water would change – they say it would just be a more regular flow throughout the year.<\/p>\n Tewolde Gebre Egziabher, head of Ethiopia’s Environmental Protection Authority, told the BBC the project was “very sensible”.<\/p>\n “The advantages for the whole country, the local communities around, even for our neighbouring countries – including Kenya -so much more outweigh the small problems that will be caused on an immediate basis but are not long-lasting.”<\/p>\n