Photo: Red Sea Region Parting in Massive Split

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A 200-foot-wide (60-meter-wide) explosive vent opened in Ethiopia in September of 2005 after two days of nearly continuous seismic activity—a visible sign of a 37-mile-long (60-kilometer-long) tectonic split. In a new study, scientists determined that this recent tear in the Earth's continental crust near the Red Sea is the largest single rip seen since satellite monitoring began.

Photograph courtesy Elizabeth Baker, Royal Holloway, University of London

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