Africa may be starting to splinter in a new place - scientists have found the signs
Scientists have found signs in Zambia that a major new crustal rift may be forming in Africa. Analyses of gases from hot springs have shown: the Kafue rift may be active and deeply connected to the Earth's mantle.
In the future, such a fault could theoretically become a new boundary of tectonic plates. But we are not talking about a quick catastrophe: such processes are very slow - on the scale of millions of years.
Details
The researchers studied hot springs and geothermal wells in Zambia. They were interested in the gases that come out with the water. Helium turned out to be particularly important.
Different forms of helium - isotopes - are found in different ratios in the Earth's crust and mantle. Therefore, the composition of the gas shows whether it came from just the upper layers of the Earth's crust or from much deeper regions.
In samples from the Kafue rift region, scientists found an unusually high ratio of helium isotopes, similar to the signal from the mantle. This could mean that a fault in the Earth's crust is deep enough to allow deep fluids to rise through it to the surface.
Such signs are characteristic of the early stages of continental rifting, a process in which the Earth's crust stretches, cracks and can gradually separate.
The Kafue Rift is part of a larger rift zone that stretches some 2,500 kilometres - from Tanzania to Namibia. Scientists believe this system may be part of a larger process involving the possible future splitting of southern Africa.
Why it's important
The discovery is important for two reasons. The first is geological. Usually when people talk about the splitting of Africa, they think of the East African rift. This is a known zone where the continent has long been stretching and where a new ocean basin could emerge in the distant future.
But the data from Zambia show that active processes can go and in another part of the continent. If the findings are confirmed, scientists will have to refine their ideas about where Africa might split in the future.
The second reason is practical. Active rift zones are often associated with geothermal energy. Hot springs and deep fluids may point to areas where local energy development is possible in the future. In addition, such systems may be associated with helium and hydrogen deposits.
Background
A rift is a major fault or stretching zone in the Earth's crust. Sometimes such zones subside over time. But in other cases, the rift continues to develop, the crust thins, and eventually a new tectonic plate boundary may form.
For example, the East African rift system has long been considered one of the main examples of active continental rifting. However, the speed of such processes is very slow by human standards.
Therefore, the discovery in Zambia does not mean that Africa will begin to "fall apart" in the near future. This is an early geological signal, which helps to understand what processes occur deep below the surface and how the continent may change in the distant future.
The authors of the study also stress that the work is based on analyses of helium from one general area of a large rift system. Therefore, more research is needed at other locations to confirm the scale and significance of this process.
Source
The study by Rūta Karolytė and co-authors The Southwestern Rift of Africa: isotopic evidence of early-stage continental rifting is published in Frontiers in Earth Science in 2026. The scientists studied the isotopic composition of gases from geothermal springs in Zambia and concluded that the Kafue rift may be an active zone of early-stage continental rifting.