Birth of a new ocean

No it's not California, you folk in Nevada don't own beachfronts yet...

A 35-mile rift in the desert of Ethiopia will eventually become a new ocean or sea, researchers now confirm.

The crack, 20 feet wide in spots, opened in 2005. Some geologists believed then that it would spawn a new ocean. But that view was controversial, and the rift had not been well studied.

A new study involving an international team of scientists and reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters finds the processes creating the rift are nearly identical to what goes on at the bottom of oceans, further indication a new sea is in the region's future.

Very cool stuff and it's not because of global warming! At least not yet....