Dust plume over Earth's youngest sea.
The Red sea, an arm of the Indian Ocean, is the youngest sea on Earth. A spreading ridge started pushing Africa and Arabia apart, and has spread down Africa as the continental rifts. Whether this will end up with a splitting of the entire continent, or the african rift will turn into a failed rift graben (called an aulacogen, consisting of downfaulted blocks with old volcanic rocks and lake sediments within) remains unknown.
With a length of over 2,000 Km, and a width of 355, the sea started to open in the Eocene about 30 million years ago, speeding up in the Oligocene. Hydrothermal vents are currently forming metal sulphide deposits in varied areas of its floor. In this image, taken from the ISS, a dust plume is being carried by winds from Africa towards Asia, bringing eroded sediment to rejoin their once-neighbours on the other side of this narrow budding ocean. The Nile river is visible in the upper left of the image.
Loz
Image credit: NASA http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=81566&src=fb
