A huge crack has appeared Kenya, sparking fears Africa could quite literally split in two.
The crack is already several miles long and it continues to grow, leading experts to claim it's evidence the continent is breaking apart.
While the idea of Africa tearing in two is a horrifying thought, apparently the tectonic specialists reckon the worst won't happen for another several million years yet.
However, that doesn't mean it's not causing damage in its current state - already the growing tear has caused part of the Nairobi-Narok highway to collapse.
Writing for The Conversation, Dr. Lucia Perez Diaz - Postdoctoral Researcher at the Fault Dynamics Research Group, London's Royal Holloway - explained how the rupture could occur.
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"The East African Rift Valley stretches over 3,000km from the Gulf of Aden in the north towards Zimbabwe in the south, splitting the African plate into two unequal parts: the Somali and Nubian plates," she wrote.
"Activity along the eastern branch of the rift valley, running along Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania, became evident when the large crack suddenly appeared in south-western Kenya."
Diaz added that tectonic plates in the Earth's crust and upper mantle can create a rift when they rupture, starting a process known as 'continental rifting'.
She went on to describe how over a period of tens of millions of years, the tear will get so big that the sea will take over, causing parts of Ethiopia and Somalia to separate from the mainland and become an island.
This is of course the process that caused land mass to break in two 138 million years ago, creating what's now called South America and Africa - the difference now being that there are many humans whose lives could be affected by this ever-increasing crack.
Luckily it is increasing at a snail's pace, with the rift in Kenya spreading at just a few millimetres per year.
Diaz went on to write: "Dramatic events, such as sudden motorway-splitting faults or large catastrophic earthquakes may give continental rifting a sense of urgency but, most of the time, it goes about splitting Africa without anybody even noticing."
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: World News, Africa