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Comments: 170 +-   Volcanic Activity May Split Africa In Two on Thursday November 05, @04:04AM

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday November 05, @04:04AM
from the spit-up dept.
earth
science
An anonymous reader writes 'Volcanic activity may split the African continent in two, creating a new ocean, say experts. This is due to a recent geological crack which has appeared in northeastern Ethiopia.'
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  • by MrMr (219533) on Thursday November 05, @04:10AM (#29992368)
    • by Xest (935314) on Thursday November 05, @04:51AM (#29992596)

      Yes, and it's now happened twice in 2 days, the world is falling apart, run for the hills!

    • by lena_10326 (1100441) on Thursday November 05, @05:31AM (#29992808) Homepage
      3 pieces. Break a cookie in half 2 times.
      • Break #1: 1 = 0.5 + 0.5
      • Break #2: 1 = 0.5 + 0.25 + 0.25

      3 pieces. Not 4. You would need 3 breaks to get 4 pieces.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        You can't break a cookie in half twice. You can break it in half once and then you can break a half-cookie in half. Saying that you're breaking the [whole] cookie in half twice implies that you are making the first break and then breaking both of those halves in two.
        • by lena_10326 (1100441) on Thursday November 05, @06:24AM (#29993060) Homepage

          There are no half-cookies. There are only cookies. Some are small; some are big. It's like saying there are half rocks. Divide a rock in half, u get 2 rocks. Not 2 half rocks. This is because a cookie has no anatomy as you and I would know it. It is symmetrical and the independent of scale. It applies down to a cookie of size 2 molecules. A 1 molecule cookie cannot be divided, because dividing molecule yields entirely different substances.

          If I had said an "apple", that would have been different. Half apples do indeed exist.

          • by imakemusic (1164993) on Thursday November 05, @06:29AM (#29993092)
            Isn't a cookie of size 2 molecules technically known as a Crumb?
            • When is a crumb not a cookie? When it's a bread crumb. It's not called a cookie crumb for nothin. A cookie crumb is just a very small cookie. Would a mile wide cookie cease to be a cookie? Why discriminate against the radially challenged?
            • Isn't a cookie of size 2 molecules technically known as a Crumb?

              Or two Plack cookies (Ö, pron. "yummy").

          • There are no half-cookies. There are only cookies. Some are small; some are big. It's like saying there are half rocks....

            It's like a car. Divide it in half and you get a Ford Pinto, not 2 half cars. This is because a car....

            • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

              It does not work for cars because cookies and rocks have a property that cars do not--symmetry of matter. Materialwise, they are consistent. Imagine a plane slicing through a rock dividing it into two--slicing at any angle. The material on both sides of the plane will always be of the same type of material possessing the same properties. This is why a rock sliced in half results in 2 rocks--not 2 half rocks. That is not true for cars because I can slice only the tire and have rubber on one side and the rema

              • by chronosan (1109639) on Thursday November 05, @07:52AM (#29993516)
                You can, however, have half an Oreo Cookie.
              • I can't believe Africa just got compared to a cookie--for an entire thread, no less.

                So I have to ask now, what kind of cookie is it? And is it crisp or soft?

                • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

                  Obviously the cookie is made of an exotic form of matter. Other substances, like water or salt, can be divided almost indefinitely (until you get down to a single molecule) without losing their properties. Not so with cookie matter. A chocolate chip cookie can be broken down only so far before it ceases being a chocolate chip cookie, and becomes just a plain cookie. This can happen even at centimetre scales. Some cookies have a directionality to them. Oreos, for example, when broken radially maintain
          • by Trails (629752) on Thursday November 05, @10:29AM (#29995220)
            I cordially invite you to come to my house and explain to my kids that half a cookie is in fact a cookie. Good luck. If you're successful, I'll even pay for your airfare.
            • What exactly is a cookie molecule ?

              It's CO2KI. A carbon atom, two oxygen atoms, one potassium, and iodine. There's an extra 'e' added to its common name in English.

          • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05, @06:19AM (#29993034)

            You guys need to get out more.

          • If so, what is the exact threshold for a [piece of] cookie to cease being a cookie and become a crumble? Is it whenever it is capable to adhere to your clothes or is it the point in which it can no longer support an entire raisin or chocolate drop?

            • See other post. Already answered the crumb question.

              FYI: these cookies have no chocolate chips. Why? Because.. rocks don't have "chocolate chips" and a continent is just a big rock. But really, the gist of my point is plain cookies and rocks are made of a simple materials and no matter how you slice them, your slice will result in 2 divisions containing the same material: left/right, up/down, regardless of the infinite slicing angles or directions. That's symmetry. That's not true with a chocolate chip cook

              • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

                I think you are forgetting the field of Iced Cookies. Sliced depthwise, you have an iced half and an non-iced half. Now both could be considered cookies, but they are now of two entirely different species....evolution rears its head. It is a little known fact that Darwin considered the cookie problem early on in his work. After failing to get cookies to mate, he turned to animals that could and thus changed the course of modern biology. So, you think you are better than Darwin, mate?

  • by Enleth (947766) <enleth@enleth.com> on Thursday November 05, @04:12AM (#29992378) Homepage

    The article duping activity would be enough to split Slashdot in two, creating a new site that could actualy cover the same events at almost the same time with little additional work, says any attentive reader.

    • In other news, East Africa and West Africa rap battles set to get more intense and possibly end in violence!
  • by MWojcik (859959) on Thursday November 05, @04:24AM (#29992452)
    It must be some some african-internet hybrid volcano, it is already splitting the article about itself in two.
  • Wait a million years and you will be rich, with ocean panoramas on your lands, private resorts, etc.
    I'm finding a real estate agent, I think there are some good ones in Nigeria...
  • by theurge14 (820596) on Thursday November 05, @04:39AM (#29992518)

    I must be playing too much WoW because now I'm starting to believe the upcoming expansion Cataclysm is a real even that will take place in Africa.

  • by G3ckoG33k (647276) on Thursday November 05, @04:43AM (#29992540)
    This has been in the school books since 1970s, at least. For starters - look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Rift_Valley [wikipedia.org] and then do a Google search for "Rift Valley"
    • I am not sure about this bit:

      "The significance of the finding is that a huge magnetic deformation can happen within a few days, like in [the] oceans," said lead author Atalay Ayele, a professor at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia.

      And then

      The Afar region, known for its salt mines and active volcanoes, is one of the lowest and hottest places on the planet.

      Okay thats interesting. In wonder how you would go pumping sea water into it? You would certainly get a sea (or lake) for a while but salinity would be a problem sooner or later. It might do wonders for the local climate.

      • Okay thats interesting. In wonder how you would go pumping sea water into it?

        That's easy, you'd just use a series of tubes.

        Wait, I just had an idea...

      • I remember reading an article (in National Geographic, I think) when I was a kid that stated geologists thought the horn of Africa would eventually be separated from the rest of the continent by this activity. I haven't been a kid in at least two decades.

  • by gafisher (865473) on Thursday November 05, @05:24AM (#29992754)
    Where's the United Nations when we need them?
  • North America (Score:5, Informative)

    by QuoteMstr (55051) <dan.colascione@gmail.com> on Thursday November 05, @06:01AM (#29992948)

    What's not very well-known is that the same thing happened to North America [wikipedia.org], almost splitting the continent in two. Lake Superior lies in the depression left by the failed North American rift.

    • It only seems like it failed. Then, any minute now, the earth is going to roar to life as a giant burp of magma rises from the core to underneath north america. yellowstone traps, missouri mega-earthquake, the end is nigh. If you knew geology, and lived in America, you'd be a preacher too. Doom is before us! Repent!

  • ...Google Earth coordinates? If it's not on GE, it doesn't exist in the so called real world.
    • this new feature of GE that gives you a slider to "go back in time" by displaying older satelite data will be interesting to use some decades(?) from now.

  • Ethiopia is going to end up being Africa's equivalent o New Zealand for Australia or Madagascar for Africa.
    What has happened before will happen again.

  • Relax (Score:3, Funny)

    by gmuslera (3436) <gmuslera@@@gmail...com> on Thursday November 05, @07:28AM (#29993384) Homepage Journal
    In 1 millon years slashdot that will finally happens and Slashdot will stop posting dupes about it.
  • It looks like 2012 is starting a bit early. Or perhaps this is just more studio publicity vulcanism.

  • by happy_place (632005) on Thursday November 05, @07:55AM (#29993542) Homepage
    I'm forty(ish) now, but I distinctly remember a social studies/geography teacher telling me about this when I was in Jr. High School. Who knew going to a California public school would be so leading edge!? ;)
  • by thomasdz (178114) on Thursday November 05, @08:17AM (#29993706)

    A couple of years ago, Slashdot was doing LOTS of duplicate articles and that has been cleaned up tremedously. It's kinda nice to see a dupe now and then to remind me of those heady days of 2007, ahhhh, how I miss them

    • The news is not that there's a rift of about 6000km long. Other people had noticed that. The news is that some very specific stuff that mere human don't give a frack about may happen there. Of course since I'm not a geologist I have no clue why it matters; if it's news or only news for that particular location or quack science.

      For the first time they demonstrate that activity on one rift segment can trigger a major episode of magma injection and associated deformation on a neighbouring segment.

FORTUNE REMEMBERS THE GREAT MOTHERS: #6 "Johnny, if you fall and break your leg, don't come running to me!" -- Mrs. Emily Barstow, June 16, 1954