We all know that millions of years ago, Earth looked very different. That said, I think most of us consider less often what it will look like millions of years from now.

If you want to think about it now, here’s a fun tidbit: Africa is slowly tearing in two.

It will take more than a million years for East Africa to divide from the rest of the continent, but when it does, it will give rise to a new ocean between the two.

This is due to the East African Rift System (EARS). It’s one of the largest rifts in the world and is several kilometers long, dividing Ethiopia, Kenya, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi, and Mozambique.

The Somalian plate, which is smaller, is splitting with the larger Nubian plate.

Africa is snapping in two…at the rate of a few millimeters a year.

Geologists and other experts do remind us that the surface of the planet is in a constant state of flux, so this is nothing new – and none of us will be around to bear witness when it eventually happens.

In fact, the way the world looks now is fairly new, as far as the history of the planet, but it seems quite old to us.

One day, perhaps humans will be looking at old maps where Africa and East Africa, now separated by an ocean, once fit neatly together.

Given the current state of climate change and war, though, probably not.