A new rift forming beneath Zambia could eventually split the African continent apart, a new analysis of geothermal springs indicates. The Kafue Rift is part of a 2,500km-long zone running from Tanzania in the east to Namibia in the west and likely as far as the mid-Atlantic ridge . This rift could become a new tectonic plate boundary and lead to the break-up of sub-Saharan Africa , researchers from Oxford University say. “The hot springs along the Kafue Rift of Zambia have helium signatures which indicate that the springs have a direct connection with the mantle, which lies between 40 and 160km below the Earth’s surface,” Mike Daly, an author of a new study published in the journal Frontiers in Earth Science, explained .…