Scientists discover why one of the world's continents is breaking apart following expert's warnings

Scientists reckon they may have figured out why one of the Earth's biggest continents is breaking apart.

For a long time, there's been a debate on how the East African Rift System (EARS), a 2,000-mile-long rift that runs through Africa's Great Lakes, was formed.

The rifts goes through Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Malawi and is stuck in between the Somali tectonic plate and the Nubian plate.

But thanks to successful chemical analysis of volcanic gases, researchers from the University of Glasgow have been able to gather evidence which suggests that a vast mass of deep Earth material lies beneath East Africa, known a superplume.

Two tectonic plates are thought to be pulling away from one another in the region, with boffins predicting this eventually will create a new continent that will split off from Africa.

But what does all this really mean and what have scientists said now?

Scientists' analysis of volcanic gases from Kenya have provided possible evidence of worrying activity beneath East Africa (Julie Rowland, University of Auckland)

So, what is a 'Superplume'?

Referred to as the 'African Superplume', it's a deep thermal anomaly beneath Africa that may help push molten rock upwards, causing volcanic activity and earthquakes in Africa and nearby regions. Scientists think it's why continents part over time.

"The Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC) conclude that the hot mantle beneath Kenya originates very deep in the Earth," the university said.

"Their findings are based on high precision mass spectrometry analysis of high temperature gases from a geothermal field in the Kenya Rift Valley."

How fast are the plates moving from one another?

The good news is that the plates are moving apart at a rate of roughly 0.2 inches per year.

In real-world terms, it's about the same speed at which your fingernails grow.

"We have long been interested in how the deep Earth rises to surface, how much is transported, and just what role it plays on forming the large-scale topography of the Earth's surface," project leader Professor Fin Stuart said.

The East African Rift is being pulled apart (USGS)

"Our research suggests that a giant hot blob of rock from the core-mantle boundary is present beneath East Africa, it is driving the plates apart and propping up the Africa continent so it hundreds of metres higher than normal."

Although scientists are aware of the volcanic activity and rifting, they are don't know if it is 'due to shallow processes or whether it is driven by upwelling hot material from deep in Earth'.

When would tectonic separation actually occur?

What the experts do know is that the tectonic separation, which will take between one and five million years to occur, could eventually create a new continent split off from Africa.

"In the human life scale, you won't be seeing many changes. You'll be feeling earthquakes, you'll be seeing volcanoes erupt, but you won't see the ocean intrude in our lifetimes," Professor Ken Macdonald of the University of California told the Daily Mail.

Biying Chen of the University of Edinburgh, the paper’s corresponding author, also reaffirmed that 'these gases from our geothermal wells have provide valuable new insight into the Earth’s deep interior'.

The expert said it will help 'us better understand not only the geological forces shaping East Africa but also the fundamental processes which drive the formation of our planet’s surface over millions of years'.