SUDDEN CRACK IN THE MIDDLE OF AFRICA IS SPLITTING IT IN TWO RIGHT NOW
In March 2018, in Kenya, the ground opened up right beneath homes. At first, this was explained by heavy rains and erosion of volcanic ash, but the fissure itself followed an ancient tectonic fault zone. And this is only one visible fragment of a much larger story.
In this video, we break down the East African Rift — a giant fault system stretching for thousands of kilometers, where Africa is slowly pulling apart. Why are the Nubian and Somali plates separating from each other? How could a new ocean eventually appear here? What is happening in Dallol, at Lake Natron, and at Lakes Nyos and Kivu? And why did the 2025 Hayli Gubbi eruption become yet another reminder that geology is not only about processes that happen “over millions of years,” but also about real risks that already exist today.
This is a popular-science breakdown of plate tectonics, volcanoes, gas-charged lakes, climate, and deep processes beneath East Africa.
Write in the comments: had you heard about the earthquakes and evacuations in Ethiopia in 2025?
Timestamps
00:00 — The ground opened beneath a home: Kenya, March 2018
01:16 — Official version: rains, ash, and soil erosion
01:25 — Why the crack aligned with an ancient tectonic fault
01:44 — East Africa as a giant fault system
02:13 — East African Rift is
02:31 — Nubian and Somali plates: Africa is splitting apart
03:18 — The Red Sea linkage and the future ocean
04:34 — Dallol: acid, salt, sulfur, and magma
05:26 — Lake Natron: alkaline water and “stone-like” remains
06:09 — The rift’s invisible danger
06:22 — Lake Nyos: the night CO₂ killed 1,746 people
07:32 — Limnic eruption: how a lake can release gas
07:44 — Lake Kivu: methane, CO₂, and millions living on its shores
08:10 — Methane extraction: energy or a new risk?
09:27 — Earthquakes and evacuations in Ethiopia
09:58 — What drives the whole system?
10:13 — Neon isotopes and traces of a deep superplume
11:14 — Why strong crust can fail more dangerously
11:59 — Hayli Gubbi: a volcano that awoke in 2025
12:48 — Climate, shrinking lakes, and accelerated rifting
13:38 — Why this is not just “geology over millions of years”
14:58 — Question for viewers
Sources and scientific basis
Chatterjee et al. — “Magmatic inflation, miniature dyke intrusion and prolonged torrential rainfall led to the emergence of the 2018 aseismic fissure in Kenya”, Natural Hazards, 2023.
Study on the 2018 Kenyan fissure: DOI: 10.1007/s11069-022-05566-7.
Fernandes et al. — “Angular velocities of Nubia and Somalia from continuous GPS data: implications on present-day relative kinematics”, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2004.
Paper on present-day divergence rates of the Nubian and Somali plates. DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2004.02.008.
Zwaan et al. — study of modern kinematics of the East African Rift, Solid Earth.
“Volcanic activity and hazard in the East African Rift Zone”, Nature Communications, 2021.
Gómez et al. — “Ultra-small microorganisms in the polyextreme conditions of the Dallol volcano, Northern Afar, Ethiopia”, Scientific Reports, 2019.
Clarisse et al. — “Atmospheric ammonia emanations from Lake Natron’s saline mudflats”, Scientific Reports, 2019.
Kling et al. — “The 1986 Lake Nyos Gas Disaster in Cameroon, West Africa”, Science, 1987.
Classic scientific publication about the Lake Nyos disaster
DOI: 10.1126/science.236.4798.169.
Bärenbold et al. — “No increasing risk of a limnic eruption at Lake Kivu: Intercomparison study reveals gas concentrations close to steady state”, PLOS ONE, 2020.
Study of gas concentrations in Lake Kivu. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0237836.
Boehrer et al. — “Reliable reference for methane concentrations in Lake Kivu at beginning of industrial exploitation”, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 2019. DOI: 10.5194/hess-23-4707-2019.
Bärenbold et al. — “Dynamic modelling provides new insights into development and maintenance of Lake Kivu’s density stratification”, Environmental Modelling & Software, 2021.
DOI: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2021.105251.
Bolson, Yutkin, Patzek — “Energy efficiency and sustainability assessment for methane harvesting from Lake Kivu”, Energy, 2021.
DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2021.120215.
Doda et al. — “Monitoring the impacts of methane extraction on the stability of stratification in Lake Kivu”, IAVCEI Scientific Assembly, 2025.
Chen / Stuart et al. — “Neon isotopes in geothermal gases from the Kenya Rift reveal a common deep mantle source beneath East Africa”, Geophysical Research Letters, 2025.
Study of neon isotopes in geothermal gases of the Kenya Rift: DOI: 10.1029/2025GL115169.
Muirhead et al. — “Accelerated rifting in response to regional climate change in the East African Rift System”, Scientific Reports, 2025.
“The importance of past rifting in large igneous province development”, Nature, 2025.
NASA Earth Observatory and Global Volcanism Program — data on the Hayli Gubbi eruption in November 2025.
OCHA / WHO — reports on seismic activity and evacuations in Ethiopia in 2025.
#catastrophes #cataclysms