These Terrifying Cracks Just Emerged All Over Earth!

[Music] Envision yourself getting out of bed one morning to discover the Earth rupturing apart engulfing everything in its wake these horrifying fractures have appeared all over the Earth from busy cities to isolated rural areas leaving populations terrified and scientists perplexed in fact experts claim to have never seen anything quite like this these Fishers are unparalleled in terms of their size and regularity these fractures have very worrying ramifications entire regions could be destabilized and catastrophic natural disasters could be triggered but why are these Sinister fissures appearing may it Herald the end of the world join us as we journey deep into the heart of this mystery of the terrifying cracks emerging all over [Music] Earth some people felt a Tremor and heard a loud noise early in the morning in monoman Michigan an explosion in a grain elevator is a more probable occurrence than an earthquake in that region of the nation but when someone went out to finish cutting up a large tree that had come down in a storm 2 weeks previous they found a huge crack had opened up in the earth it wasn't going to swallow anybody whole but you could probably have lost a cell phone in there the monomane crack was around 5.6 ft deep slightly wider than a football field and slightly longer than the field itself it wound its way through a wooded region that had been level before the crack was really perched on top of a ridge that was now 6 ft high with trees on either side leaning slightly away from being perfectly vertical you can actually make it out in satellite images if you look closely enough an immediate response from geologists was required to assess the situation and determine what had transpired while some of the theories put forward were intriguing many left many perplexed under Joshua Richardson's leadership a team of researchers from Michigan Tech set out to investigate it using their own seismic waves in these kinds of small scale research the seismic waves are really produced by striking a piece of Steel with a sledgehammer seismic waves reflected off of subsurface Rock and sediment were picked up by sensors installed around the fisure about 6 ft of glacial silt covers the Limestone base it is not surprising that seismic waves traveling perpendicular to the Fisher in the Bedrock showed slightly slower propagation rates compared to those going parallel to it the cracks run Northwest to Southeast squeezing in a perpendicular direction is the primary stress experienced by the bedrock in the area connect the dots and this looks like a classic example of what is called a popup if you place a foam book on a table and press it down while someone else squeezes it from the sides nothing will happen but as soon as you remove the downward pressure it will Buckle bulging upwards Bedrock popups are similar except that the top layer of the rock cracks in half to form a shallow tent-like shape but that can't happen unless we get rid of that downward pressure this wasn't a rock quarry but popups are a common occurrence at Rock quaries during Rock removal it has also been observed that popups can be caused by glacial ice melting however this phenomenon did not occur 11,000 years after the ice had gone so what could have possibly caused a popup to suddenly appear there it is unknown to the researchers could it be that the last ice sheets retreat was almost enough of a change to trigger a popup here but it needed an additional component to really set it off were some of the Limestone structural components dissolved by the groundwater it would have been irresponsible to disregard the two things that the researchers did notice to start with there's the tree that blew down during the last storm standing toward one end of the fissure it was a large one secondly a 1998 satellite image shows a rectangular shape in the earth that begins at the roadside and ends close to the fisser the only problem is is that no one who lives there remembers what it was maybe it was a trench Road Cruise borrowed dirt from at one point or maybe it was just a small pasture or garden plot since there was no apparent cause for the Bedrock popup the scientists concluded that it must be a first and it was giant Fishers have also emerged across the southwestern United States causing experts to be concerned just as in the end of the world movies the United States has been extracting groundwater at such a rate that it has begun to crack open across vast stretches of the southwest Arizona Utah and California are the states where these fissures have been detected thus far not only can these cracks devastate houses roads canals and dams but they also pose a threat to people and cattle and have an obvious effect on the value of nearby properties groundwater as its name suggests seeps beneath the earth's surface via an intricate network of interconnected spaces inside rocks and silt which is called an aquifer commonly people access this Subterranean water supply By Boring Wells which form a cone through which water can rise from the aquifer however the construction of the crack occurs when there is an excessive pumping of groundwater which causes the mass above to lose the support that the water provides leading to the collapse of the soil above without a doubt the these Fishers did not form in nature indicators of stress on the Earth are the Fishers huge level expanses that sank when groundwater stops supporting them are encircled by them natural fissures do occur but they are far less common and typically caused by movements in the Earth's crust the recharge areas of an aquifer are usually found at higher elevations where precipitation and other forms of precipitation seep into the Earth and help to keep the aquifer's ground water level stable occasionally this water will surface as Springs letting the water cut its own crack which is also called the riverbed continuous water extraction causes Fishers to grow because it interrupts the water cycle that occurs naturally regrettably they often emerge in basins interspersed with mountains over aquifers do you know what's also located in the basins populated areas when people in the development of cracks are inclosed close proximity to one another the potential for catastrophe is obvious not only can these cracks devastate houses roads canals and dams but they also pose a threat to people and cattle and have an obvious effect on the value of nearby properties at least since 2002 Arizona has been aware of and keeping tabs on this issue at present the Arizona Geological Survey has documented cracks spanning 169 miles researchers in tens of thousands of locations around the United States have found that the aquifers which provide water to around 90% of the country's water systems are being drained to the point where they would not be able to refill nearly half of the locations that have been tracked have declined significantly over the last four decades as groundwater pumping in the United States surpasses water replenishment four out of 10 sites have reached all-time lows in the last decade rest during depleted aquifers may require hundreds if not thousands of years there are several Arizona locations that are already inoperable because of the severe and persistent water consumption subsurface aquifers have not had the time to be refilled by rainfall the ingredients for a crisis are already present when we incorporate climate change farmers will have to dig deeper into their groundwater reserves to meet their freshwater needs when rivers dry up due to Rising global temperatures there there has been an almost 20% decrease in the Colorado River since the year 2000 this River provides fresh water to farmers in the southwest particularly Arizona and if the projected 2 to 5° F increase in global temperatures in the Colorado River Basin by 2050 comes to pass River flow could be reduced by 10% to 40% how did it get this bad a major obstacle to resolving over pumping is the Nationwide absence of Regulation state laws prohibiting groundwater pumping are weak and vary by location while Federal Regulations are nearly non-existent even Arizona isn't immune over the majority of its existence groundwater in the majority of the state has been unregulated functioning on a first come first sered basis people can just keep pumping out groundwater till it runs dry as there is no cap on its use additionally Nationwide groundwater studies are few and far between the majority of studies only look at one place or Source this makes it harder to gauge the extent of the problem of over pumping of groundwater resources across the country which may contribute to the lack of stringent regulations governing this practice at the same time harmful activities such as growing crops in Aid regions are permitted to persist in the absence of Behavioral changes that enable subsurface aquifers to self renew these cracks will persist in expanding this issue will persist so long as our use exceeds the rate at which it recharges naturally the fact that these fishes aren't just appearing in the southwestern region is far more worrisome although there have been noticeable shifts the unlicensed pumping of water continues to be the root cause and no one is really to blame Most states allow completely unchecked extraction of groundwater and there is a general lack of national regulation on water extraction in the United States States therefore we will lose a lot of agricultural output if we reduce water extraction but the planet will devour us if we do nothing we can expect the cracks to grow unfortunately the African continent is also splitting into two not long ago in Southwestern Kenya a huge and abrupt crack that extended miles emerged a section of the road connecting Nairobi and Naro collapsed because of the continuous rip at first scientists thought the fish might have formed as a result of tectonic activity on the east African Rift although geologists have come to the conclusion that this feature is probably an erosional Gully there are still unanswered concerns about its formation its possible connection to the east African Rift and why it occurred in that specific area the erosion of the soft soils that filled a previous Vault that was caused by a rift could be one possible explanation for the crack the Earth is always changing even if some of those changes are so small that we can't tell they're happening we can think of plate tectonics as an example the potential partition of the African continent is a topic of renewed debate every time a big event happens the lithosphere which consists of the crust and upper mantle of the earth is constructed from tectonic plates these plates are constantly moving gliding at differing relative speeds across a viscous asthenosphere the precise mechanism that causes the movement of convection currents in the asthenosphere and the forces generated at plate boundaries is still a matter of controversy but both processes are theoretically plausible these pressures can also cause the plates to rupture which can lead to the formation of riffs and in the worst case scenario entirely new borders between the plates this is currently happening in several parts of the East African Rift system along this massive Rift in Eastern Africa the younger and smaller Somalian plate is drawing Westward while the older and bigger Nubian plate is tugging Eastward on rare occasions the Nubian plate is called the African plate while the Somalian plate is also called the Somali plate furthermore the Arabian Somalian and Nubian plates are moving apart to the north a y-shaped Rift system is generated in the afar area of Ethiopia when these plates cross the East African Rift started to form around 35 million years ago in Eastern Africa between the Horn of Africa and Arabia after continuing Southward for about 25 million years the rifting finally reached Northern Kenya roughly parallel to one other two sets of crustal fractures create the rift the Western Rift forms an ark that extends from Uganda to Malawi while the Eastern Rift cuts across Kenya and Ethiopia the East Fork of the river is parched in contrast to the West Fork which borders the congales jungle unexpectedly the massive fisure in Southwestern Kenya has surfaced revealing movement along the Eastern Rift Valley branch that cuts through Tanzania Kenya and Ethiopia when is rifting likely to happen as a result of stretching due to horizontal extensional stress the lithosphere will become thinner the eventual eruption of magma causes the formation of rift valleys tectonic plate splitting can happen for a variety of reasons all tectonic forces on Earth including the extensional forces required for rifting originate in the mantle the process of convection in the mantle occurs when the material within expands due to heat due to buoyant forces the material Rises once its density Falls below that of the surrounding fluid as a result of expansion when the fluid reaches the surface it cools thickens and sinks once convection cells are produced the process continues by he in the material by situating Continental Rifts along the edges of convection cells mantle convection can account for rifting it is very unlikely that mantle convection is the source of all riffs because no set of Elementary particles can be generated that would explain the geometry and placements of every modern Rift consequently other variables must be at play possible culprits include another phenomenon called plumes the lithosphere above a continental plate can get heated when hot mantle material reaches its base and this can trigger rifting in addition rifting can happen when the plume migrates upwards against the base of the plate causing extensional strains a ridge push and a slab pull also happen the downward Force known as slab pull occurs when continental plates are subducted as a result of the gravitational attraction of the materials in the subduction zone when material builds up along spreading ridges it creates a force called Ridge push which pulls the two plates apart when the end points of two continents experience the same forces like slab pull or Ridge push rifting can happen if these forces are great enough and the continent has a weak spot the continent could split apart rifting can occur as a result of subduction if the lithosphere is bent prior to subduction rifting can occur when bending causes the surface radius of a plate to grow in response to the extension pressures acting on it as the curvature of the plate is increased areas of thicker elevated continental crust such as those formed by collisional origy may also exhibit rifting in such cases lateral spreading happens due to the material's weight gravitational collapse stretching and rifting seismicity and volcanic eruptions are surface manifestations that occur alongside this process throughout the rift valley rifting is the initial process of Continental breakup and may cause the formation of new ocean basins this may seem strange but remember that earth's surface is always changing it's simply so gradual that we can't even begin to Fathom it our current perception of the world is a recent development the jigsaw-like Assembly of huge tectonic plates is the source of the land and water that we see today in Eurasia the Americas Africa and anarctica and Oceania but on a scale of millions of years these jigsaw pieces move around very slowly consider the Earth's breakup some 138 million years ago when Africa and South America split apart the fact that the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of South America and Africa fit together like a jigsaw puzzle is a stunning visual representation of the former Union of these two land masses the Pacific Ocean is Contracting and the Atlantic Ocean is expanding as a result of the ongoing tectonic activity pay attention to where the Indian subcontinent is right now the Indian and Eurasian plates collided after 135 million years of fast movement of about 4 in per year creating a force that raised the Himalayas to their current position as the highest mountain range in the world what do you imagine the planet will look like in a 100 or 200 million years what places will see the formation of new mountain ranges what areas are likely to see the eruption of new volcanoes over the past half Millennium the Atlantic will have expanded while the Pacific has contracted North and South America have shifted Westward with California shifting North while Greenland will be situated to the west and north in the near future the two halves of Africa will rotate around each other causing enormous mountain building on the Arabian and European peninsulas as one part travels anticlockwise it will crash into Europe and the other half will head East toward the Arabian Peninsula the current trajectory has New Zealand heading south and Australia heading north into the tropics the lithosphere must be ruptured by significant extensional forces for Continental rifting to take place the East African Rift is an active Rift that generates tensions due to mantle movement beneath the surface underneath a huge plume of mantle is forcing the lithosphere to rise which is rendering it more fragile as a result of both increasing temperatures and straining and breaking caused by faulting the question remains whether the current rate of rifting will lead to the formation of smaller ocean basins like the Red Sea and later on larger ones like the miniature Atlantic Ocean on the other hand could it possibly reach its destination faster it could also come to a standstill when East Africa finally separates it will be merely the next chap in this immense geological novel it is Bleak but who knows maybe humans Will Survive to witness these changes thanks for watching another episode of Voyager while you're still here make sure to click the video on your screen 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Channel: Voyager

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Keywords: Voyager, Voyager Space, Space, Destiny, Ridddle, Voyage, technology, universe, interesting facts, education, space, elon musk, rocket, starship, spacex, galaxy, solar system, mars, jupiter, neptune, betelgeuse, geography, terrifying discovery, scientists announced, science news, space news, universe news, elon musk news, nasa, Earth, Terrifying cracks, cracks emerged, Terrifying cracks emerged, These Terrifying cracks, These Terrifying cracks emerged, These Terrifying cracks emerged all over Earth.

Id: FeOmPLUe53Y

Length: 19min 56sec (1196 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 26 2024