00:00A gigantic fissure in the earth earth that we thought immobile
00:03was actually never been.
00:05And if it ended up opening a day,
00:07the world world would be totally transformed.
00:12A new study revealed that the Gulf of Suez, in Egypt,
00:16continues slowly to move away.
00:17The movement is quite minimal,
00:19about 2 to 0,5 mm per year.
00:25It's about the speed at which you push your fingers.
00:28Otherwise, we can't see this process at the eye.
00:33But the soil, there is, change.
00:36And we can't do anything.
00:37And it can cause a big problem.
00:43You see, the Gulf of Suez is between the African continent and the Sinai.
00:48It is part of an immense system
00:50where enormous pieces of the earth earth
00:52can be separated from each other.
00:54You can imagine the planet of our planet
00:57like a gigantic puzzle
00:59that makes huge pieces
01:00that we call the plaques tectonics.
01:02These plaques are not fixed.
01:05They move slowly and permanently.
01:08It's a million years ago,
01:09the Arab plaque started to get away from the African plaque.
01:12And once separated,
01:14the soil has been fissured.
01:16The Gulf of Suez has been formed.
01:21The Gulf of Suez has been formed.
01:22The Gulf of Suez has been formed.
01:22For a long time,
01:23the scientists thought that the Gulf of Suez
01:25had been opened
01:25there about 5 million years ago.
01:28They were sure that it was
01:29an old fissure abandoned
01:31while the Gulf of Suez had continued to grow.
01:35And here we have discovered
01:37that it's perhaps not the whole story.
01:39The researchers have studied
01:40about 300 kilometers
01:42from the Gulf.
01:44They studied the form of the terrain,
01:46of the ancient valley
01:47and even of the vieux
01:48riffs coral.
01:49And they discovered
01:50that the soil continued
01:51to be able to get lent.
01:54This movement is extremely lent.
01:56We can not see it.
01:58But modern tools
01:59detect it.
02:02You may wonder,
02:03why should we worry about it?
02:06Imagine that the Gulf of Suez
02:08continues to open.
02:09Africa could end up
02:10from getting away from the Moyen-Orient?
02:12The answer is yes!
02:15Well, technically,
02:16and if it happened a day,
02:18the consequences would be enormous.
02:19The Moon was Using the algae
02:21that would eventually end up
02:22directly before the Norte.
02:34In addition,
02:36the Green Sea and the Méditeranne
02:37are very different.
02:38The whitening of the Arctic
02:39is still warm and warm.
02:42In 173 months
02:43you could not divide
02:43species of the Lorte
02:45and theюсь shore
02:47Haunted the lands
02:49local and the whole ecosystem.
02:52This would also be the one of the maritime routes most frequent in the world.
02:56The canal of Suez would no longer exist.
02:59At the place, there would be a massive maritime passage
03:03through all the region.
03:05Port, pipeline, ponts and other infrastructure
03:08would all be adapted to this new landscape.
03:12But let's look at how scientists understood
03:15that the process is far to be finished.
03:17They had in general followed an indices like real detectives.
03:22And the biggest proof came from the ancient coral reefs.
03:27When these coral were alive,
03:29it was millions of years ago,
03:30they pushed to the sea,
03:32like the coral reefs of today.
03:34But today, some are at about 19 mètres of the sea.
03:39It's almost like a building of six stairs.
03:42But the coral cannot climb.
03:44So the only logical explanation is that
03:47the surface of the sea.
03:48The ocean has slowly raised over millions of years.
03:51The scientists have examined
03:53the old valley of the sea.
03:54The thing is that the rivers
03:56normally take the most easy route to the bottom.
03:59But some of these ancient lits
04:01seem curved,
04:02stretched,
04:03and even slightly tordues.
04:06It's a bit like
04:07if we were drawing a straight line
04:08on an elastic,
04:09then we were drawing it.
04:10It's an elastic.
04:11The line doesn't break,
04:13but it slowly changes the shape.
04:15It's exactly what happened to the landscape.
04:19The researchers also examined
04:20the ancient fissures
04:21of the earth earth
04:22called failles.
04:23We thought that many
04:25had stopped moving
04:26there millions of years,
04:27but they found signs
04:28that some of these failles
04:30move still.
04:31And then there were also
04:33GPS measurements.
04:35The thing is that the modern GPS
04:37is so precise
04:38that it can measure
04:39more small than the large
04:41of a grain of rice.
04:43And these measurements
04:45have shown that the African
04:46and the Arabic
04:47are always away from each other.
04:51So,
04:51none of these indices
04:53have directly proved
04:54the theory,
04:54but they all point
04:56in the same direction.
04:57The Gulf of Suez
04:59has never completely
05:00ceased to open,
05:01even if the movement
05:02is incredibly lent.
05:05The scientists
05:06have even a name
05:06for that.
05:07They call it
05:08the déformation
05:09residuelle.
05:10That means that the
05:11essence of the movement
05:12is finished,
05:13but that the earth
05:14is still still
05:15a little bit
05:15and that really change
05:17the way the scientists
05:18saw this kind
05:19of gigantic
05:20fissures.
05:22Jusqu'ici,
05:23they were all
05:26inactive
05:26and opened
05:27again,
05:27so they were
05:28inactive
05:29and opened.
05:30Now,
05:31there seems to be
05:32a third option
05:33since the Gulf
05:34of Suez
05:35is between the two.
05:37He has not reached
05:38the Red River
05:39where the plates
05:40are already
05:41quite apart
05:41to form a
05:42whole new
05:43oceanic.
05:44He does not
05:45as fast as the
05:46rift
05:47est-africain.
05:49In this moment,
05:51loin
05:51sous l'Afrique
05:52de l'Est,
05:53d'énormes morceaux
05:53de la croûte terrestre
05:54s'éloignent lentement
05:55les uns des autres.
05:57Cette gigantesque
05:58fissure
05:59s'étend sur environ
06:006400 km,
06:02à peu près
06:02la distance
06:03entre New York
06:04et Londres,
06:04plus 800 km.
06:07Les scientifiques
06:08pensent qu'un jour,
06:09la fissure
06:10deviendra si large
06:11que l'Océan Indien
06:12s'y engouffrera
06:13et créera
06:14un nouvel océan.
06:16Quand ça arrivera,
06:17la corne de l'Afrique,
06:18y compris des parties
06:19de pays comme
06:20la Somalie,
06:21l'Ethiopie
06:22et le Kenya,
06:23pourrait se détacher
06:24du reste du continent
06:25et devenir une immense île.
06:27La raison est simple.
06:29Trois énormes plaques
06:30tectoniques
06:31s'éloignent les unes
06:32des autres
06:32à un endroit appelé
06:34le point triple de la phare.
06:38C'est l'un des rares endroits
06:39sur Terre
06:40où les scientifiques
06:41peuvent réellement voir
06:42la toute première formation
06:43d'un océan
06:44sur la terre ferme.
06:46Le rift abrite aussi
06:48certains des lieux
06:48les plus extrêmes
06:49de la planète.
06:51Il comprend la dépression
06:52du Danakil,
06:53l'un des endroits
06:54habités
06:55les plus chauds
06:56de la planète.
06:58Les températures
06:59y grimpent souvent
07:00au-dessus de 49 degrés Celsius.
07:03On y trouve aussi
07:04le lac Tanganyika.
07:05Le deuxième lac d'eau douce
07:06le plus profond du monde.
07:08Il atteint des profondeurs
07:09d'environ 1460 mètres.
07:12Même les volcans
07:13y sont inhabituels.
07:14L'un d'eux,
07:15l'Aule Duanyo Lengai,
07:17crache de la lave noire
07:19au lieu de la lave rouge
07:20incandescente
07:21à laquelle on s'attendrait.
07:22C'est parce qu'elle est faite
07:24d'un autre type de roche
07:25en fusion
07:25qui jaillit
07:26à des températures
07:27bien plus basses.
07:29Mais revenons
07:30au golfe de Suez.
07:32Un autre point fascinant
07:33de cette découverte,
07:34c'est qu'elle pourrait
07:35changer la façon
07:36dont les scientifiques
07:37voient la fracturation
07:38des continents.
07:39Longtemps,
07:40les géologues ont pensé
07:41que le processus
07:42suivait un schéma
07:43assez simple.
07:45D'abord,
07:47le sol commence à se fissurer.
07:48Puis, un rift se forme.
07:51Ensuite,
07:51les deux côtés
07:52s'éloignent lentement
07:53et finalement,
07:55un nouvel océan
07:56peut apparaître entre eux.
07:57Mais le golfe de Suez
07:59ne veut pas suivre ce scénario
08:00et ça veut dire
08:01qu'il y en a peut-être d'autres.
08:04Certains rifts
08:05peuvent rester à ce stade
08:06presque terminé
08:07pendant des millions d'années.
08:10À cause de ça,
08:11les scientifiques
08:12vont peut-être devoir repenser
08:13certains de leurs modèles
08:14sur la façon
08:15dont les continents
08:16se séparent au fil du temps.
08:17Comme la croûte continue
08:19de s'étirer,
08:19même un peu,
08:20d'anciennes failles
08:21peuvent redevenir actives.
08:23Ça peut provoquer
08:24de petits séismes
08:25et de nouveaux changements
08:26du paysage.
08:27Ça ne veut pas dire
08:28que le golfe de Suez
08:29est sur le point
08:30de vivre une énorme catastrophe.
08:32Mais ça montre
08:33que des endroits
08:34qu'on croit parfaitement stables
08:35ne sont peut-être
08:36pas aussi immobiles
08:37qu'ils en ont l'air.
08:40C'est pourquoi
08:41les scientifiques
08:41doivent continuer
08:42à les surveiller.
08:43Même de minuscules mouvements
08:45peuvent affiner
08:45les modèles
08:46de risques sismiques
08:47et révéler ce qui se passe
08:48au plus profond du sous-sol.
08:50Quoi qu'il en soit,
08:51inutile de craindre
08:53une catastrophe imminente
08:54dans le golfe de Suez
08:55pour l'instant.
08:57Même s'il se déchire complètement,
08:59aucun de nous
09:00ne le verra
09:00de son vivant.
09:01Actuellement,
09:02le sol s'écarte
09:03d'une infime fraction
09:04de centimètres par an.
09:08À cette vitesse,
09:10atteindre le point de rupture
09:11prendrait des millions d'années.
09:13C'est parti.
09:13C'est parti.
09:14C'est parti.
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