Earth's Scars: Exploring the World's Five Great Rift Systems

10. The Future of Earth's Rift Systems

Driven by the unrelenting processes of plate tectonics, Earth's rift systems will keep changing as we gaze forward. Although these changes take place on geological timeframes well beyond human lifespans, future geological events and their possible effects on human society and ecosystems depend on an awareness of the long-term history of rift systems. In other places, including the East African Rift, ongoing rifting could finally cause major landmasses to separate. Based on present rates of movement, scientists estimate that in millions of years a new ocean basin might develop between the Nubian and Somali plates. This would fundamentally change the African continent and have significant effects on ecosystems and world climate patterns. In the next decades and millennia, climate change will probably have major effects on habitats linked to rifts. Rising temperatures could hasten the melting of ice in areas such as the West Antarctic Rift System, therefore causing changes in local tectonic activity and perhaps increasing isostatic rebound. In some regions, variations in precipitation patterns could influence the hydrology of rift lakes and rivers, therefore affecting the nearby ecosystems and human populations.