I suppose any contemporary American would say that there is a political rift in the country. That notion, however, misses the nature of polity: There is no American era sans rift. Political rifting is common throughout the current world, and has always been common. Pulling apart is natural, even after a widespread coming together.
Of course, there have been times of convergence, moments like the beginning of WWII brought many Americans together. But even during a dominantly convergent time, tiny cracks and separations reveal themselves, and sometimes isolated maars of disagreement form rather violently. Not too long ago, for example, a south Chicago minister proclaimed that America got what it deserved during the attacks on September 11, saying, “The chickens have come home to roost” while much of the country uniformly mourned. But that’s the nature of our humanity, and it appears to follow the nature of Nature itself. Similarly, there were those who did not empathize with the general convergence of feeling after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Take the Great Rift Valley, or East African Rift, as an example of how rifting rips a larger unity. Evident on maps because of the large lakes that fill parts of the rift, the split in eastern Africa is a zone where a new sea will form much the way the Atlantic Ocean began to form at the time of the dinosaurs. From the Mesozoic Era through today, the Atlantic has widened; the ocean is a product of the breakup of supercontinent Pangaea. In a similar process occurring in eastern Africa, the rifting that will produce a new sea runs from the Afar Triangle of Ethiopia in the north southward toward Lake Malawi and Mozambique. Along the path, the rift bifurcates, notably from Lake Turkana southward to encircle Lake Victoria, and then rejoins as a single rift zone in the vicinity of Lake Mweru. In addition to the rifting, as the new seafloor spreads, it also produces volcanoes and earthquakes. Breakups of any kind are rarely smooth.
The East African Rift hasn’t been a uniform splitting. Its various segments have been active at different times, and some are currently not undergoing any apparent rifting. But the entire rift system bespeaks of a general trend to produce an ever-widening gap in eastern Africa. Little by little, the continent is breaking up, just as Madagascar broke off the continent long ago as evidenced by its western coastline that matches like a puzzle piece the coastline on the opposite side of the Mozambique Channel.
Intermittent and irregular rifting is normal in seafloor spreading, that process that widens a rift valley turned ocean. The planet’s crust is a rather brittle substance, so one can expect the unexpected as one zone of relative weakness breaks whereas another zone of relative strength or elasticity resists breaking. In addition, unseen movements of magma add to stresses, sometimes making their presence known through explosive volcanic activity: Thus the maars that once formed in places like the Ririba section recently studied by Giacomo Corti and others.* The volcanism in that section has become quite dormant over the past three million years.
Political rifting appears to mimic crustal rifting. Unseen forces at times, welling up from beneath the surface perspectives of many with common mind, show up at times as little splits and at other times as isolated violent outbreaks of protestors. Just as the physical rifting in a continent is complex, so also is the rifting of any polity, especially in a diverse population. That is, just as breaking Africa apart isn’t uniform in either time or segment, so the breaking of any political unity isn’t uniform.
Today, the forces of political rifting appear to be not only more diverse, but also more numerous than ever before. Political magma erupts with force through seemingly small cracks, and various media appear to be devoted to widening any rift. Splits of any kind, from celebrity breakups to social fractures, make interesting stories. And in a world highly focused by social media on breakups, those associated with the body politic seem to be constantly in the news.
Maybe, since our ancestors from Australopithecus on evolved in the East African Rift, we inherited an innate penchant to rift apart any polity shortly after a unifying convergence. Yes, at times we ostensibly “come together” over some common cause or perspective, but during those very times of convergence, we set up a future rifting.
Just as no supercontinent is permanent, so no polity is permanent. Every “political season” sees a manifestation of rifting in formerly uniform bodies of polity. Watch as the rifts widen during the many debates that will occur in the party seeking power as various members representing separate factions fracture their political continent. And then, once the splitting has isolated first one and then another of the upwelling magma chambers, observe a general annealing of the cracks and how some segments that once formed by rifting, like the Ririba Valley in Eastern Africa, become dormant old scars on the landscape of polity.
* Giacomo Corti et al, Aborted propagation of the Ethiopian rift caused by linkage with the Kenyan rift, Nature Communications (2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09335-2
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2019-03-evolution-african-rift-valley.html#jCp
Of course, there have been times of convergence, moments like the beginning of WWII brought many Americans together. But even during a dominantly convergent time, tiny cracks and separations reveal themselves, and sometimes isolated maars of disagreement form rather violently. Not too long ago, for example, a south Chicago minister proclaimed that America got what it deserved during the attacks on September 11, saying, “The chickens have come home to roost” while much of the country uniformly mourned. But that’s the nature of our humanity, and it appears to follow the nature of Nature itself. Similarly, there were those who did not empathize with the general convergence of feeling after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Take the Great Rift Valley, or East African Rift, as an example of how rifting rips a larger unity. Evident on maps because of the large lakes that fill parts of the rift, the split in eastern Africa is a zone where a new sea will form much the way the Atlantic Ocean began to form at the time of the dinosaurs. From the Mesozoic Era through today, the Atlantic has widened; the ocean is a product of the breakup of supercontinent Pangaea. In a similar process occurring in eastern Africa, the rifting that will produce a new sea runs from the Afar Triangle of Ethiopia in the north southward toward Lake Malawi and Mozambique. Along the path, the rift bifurcates, notably from Lake Turkana southward to encircle Lake Victoria, and then rejoins as a single rift zone in the vicinity of Lake Mweru. In addition to the rifting, as the new seafloor spreads, it also produces volcanoes and earthquakes. Breakups of any kind are rarely smooth.
The East African Rift hasn’t been a uniform splitting. Its various segments have been active at different times, and some are currently not undergoing any apparent rifting. But the entire rift system bespeaks of a general trend to produce an ever-widening gap in eastern Africa. Little by little, the continent is breaking up, just as Madagascar broke off the continent long ago as evidenced by its western coastline that matches like a puzzle piece the coastline on the opposite side of the Mozambique Channel.
Intermittent and irregular rifting is normal in seafloor spreading, that process that widens a rift valley turned ocean. The planet’s crust is a rather brittle substance, so one can expect the unexpected as one zone of relative weakness breaks whereas another zone of relative strength or elasticity resists breaking. In addition, unseen movements of magma add to stresses, sometimes making their presence known through explosive volcanic activity: Thus the maars that once formed in places like the Ririba section recently studied by Giacomo Corti and others.* The volcanism in that section has become quite dormant over the past three million years.
Political rifting appears to mimic crustal rifting. Unseen forces at times, welling up from beneath the surface perspectives of many with common mind, show up at times as little splits and at other times as isolated violent outbreaks of protestors. Just as the physical rifting in a continent is complex, so also is the rifting of any polity, especially in a diverse population. That is, just as breaking Africa apart isn’t uniform in either time or segment, so the breaking of any political unity isn’t uniform.
Today, the forces of political rifting appear to be not only more diverse, but also more numerous than ever before. Political magma erupts with force through seemingly small cracks, and various media appear to be devoted to widening any rift. Splits of any kind, from celebrity breakups to social fractures, make interesting stories. And in a world highly focused by social media on breakups, those associated with the body politic seem to be constantly in the news.
Maybe, since our ancestors from Australopithecus on evolved in the East African Rift, we inherited an innate penchant to rift apart any polity shortly after a unifying convergence. Yes, at times we ostensibly “come together” over some common cause or perspective, but during those very times of convergence, we set up a future rifting.
Just as no supercontinent is permanent, so no polity is permanent. Every “political season” sees a manifestation of rifting in formerly uniform bodies of polity. Watch as the rifts widen during the many debates that will occur in the party seeking power as various members representing separate factions fracture their political continent. And then, once the splitting has isolated first one and then another of the upwelling magma chambers, observe a general annealing of the cracks and how some segments that once formed by rifting, like the Ririba Valley in Eastern Africa, become dormant old scars on the landscape of polity.
* Giacomo Corti et al, Aborted propagation of the Ethiopian rift caused by linkage with the Kenyan rift, Nature Communications (2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09335-2
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2019-03-evolution-african-rift-valley.html#jCp
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