Geography
A 35-mile crack tore open in an Ethiopian desert in just days
In 2005, a volcano at the edge of Ethiopia's Afar desert erupted, then magma pushed sideways underground and split the rift open along its full 35-mile length in a matter of days rather than the centuries geologists expected. The rifting is the same process that forms ocean floors, and if it continues at its current pace the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden are expected to flood in and create a new ocean in a few million years.