ADDIS ABABA – A 35-mile rift in the desert of Ethiopia will eventually become a new ocean!

A new study involving a global team of scientists was done on the crack, which opened in 2005. It is up to 20 feet wide in certain spots, and tore open in just a matter of days.

The scientists used seismic data to recreate the event, when the volcano Dabbahu at the northern end of the rift erupted. The magma pushed into the rift area, pushing the land apart.

The African and Arabian tectonic plates meet in northern Ethiopia, but have only been spreading apart at about an inch per year for 30 million years.

The scientific team now believes the Red Sea will pour into the desert in about a million years, creating a new ocean!

The more immediate concern is that future volcanic activity will create sporadic but large breaks in the land. While the crack is in the desert, there are still populations living nearby that could be dangerously affected by sudden cracks in the land.

As of yet, the scientists do not have a way of predicting such events.