Marnie Chesterton

Now it's the Nubian plate to the west and the Somali plate to the east.

The East African rift now is the fracture system forming between them.

Okay, so that's the geology lesson.

Tell me more about the new research and specifically this conversation about why you can't have a beach in the middle of Kenya.

Yes.

So now let's go back to Turkana and why the Turkana region is so important.

This is because scientifically, it's one of the very few places on Earth, Mani, where researchers can actually observe a continent in the process of breaking apart.

Scientists studying areas like the Turkana rift in Kenya and Ethiopia, they're finding that the crust there may be thinning faster, you know, than expected.

And this process, they have a name for it and they call it necking.

So when you say, Phyllis, faster than expected, how fast are we talking?

Now, don't be scared.

No need for alarm.

You know, we're still talking about many, many millions of years.

Yeah, so no beach for your cousin in Tikana.

So how did the scientists find this out?

Okay, so amongst the methods that have been used, first they've been using GPS and satellite imaging.

So scientists have observed that parts of East Africa are moving apart and this is by a few millimetres each year.

Now this has showed that the continent is under tension.

Also, earthquakes have revealed where the crust is breaking and stretching.

Now, geologists found long fault escapements and stretched rock formations that look exactly like materials that are undergoing extension and thinning.