"Africa's Split: Mushroom-shaped Superplume Divides Continent"
A recent study suggests that a giant plume of super-heated rock rising from near Earth's core may be responsible for the mysterious distortions observed in the East African Rift, a network of valleys stretching from the Red Sea to Mozambique. The researchers found that the deformation of the Earth's surface in the rift is not only perpendicular to its length but also parallel to it, which is unusual. They propose that a mushroom-shaped "superplume" of hot rock ascending from the mantle, known as the African Superplume, may be causing these distortions. This study improves our understanding of how continents break apart.
