Anonymousabout 2 hours ago
A new study published in Frontiers in Earth Science has identified helium isotope signatures in Zambia's Kafue Rift that indicate mantle-sourced fluids are reaching the Earth's surface through crust-penetrating fractures — the earliest geochemical evidence yet of a potential new tectonic plate boundary forming in southern Africa. The finding places the Kafue Rift within the broader Southwest African Rift Zone, a 2,500-kilometer network of fractures extending from Tanzania to Namibia, but scientists caution the rift could stall before becoming a full continental split, and Zambia's near-total lack of monitoring infrastructure means critical data may be going unrecorded.