Earthen Rifts

Allaah The Almighty Says (what means):

{By the earth, that of rift.}

(Quran, 86:12)

Scientific Analysis

Geologists have recently discovered that the earth's crust is divided into a network of deep rifts, resulting in twelve main parts called plates, in addition to a number of minor parts called platelets. These plates float over a layer of molten magma, which rises into seabeds and erupts in between two adjacent plates to form new crust.

As one side of a plate increases in size, the other side decreases, while bending beneath the adjacent plate. This shows the existence of what are called mid-oceanic rifts. These rifts cover the earth's crust and can reach a depth of about 150 km, as deep as the crust itself in its thickest place.

Furthermore, all of the continents and their distinct mountain ranges move along with the movement of these plates, making them closer to or further from each other. This is a continuous but slow displacement, being no more than a few centimeters each year. For example, the rift of the Red Sea expands 3 cm annually, while that of the Gulf of California expands 6 cm annually.

Likewise, the colliding of the Indian plate with its adjacent plate caused the creation of the Himalayas, which is home to the highest peaks on the planet.

It is believed today that the current continents were once connected some 200 million years ago, forming Pangaea, a single continent surrounded by a single ocean. The “original” rift, called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR), is still a region of volcanic activity.

The Miracle

Mid-oceanic rifts were not known to scientists until after World War II. Furthermore, they were only explained by the tectonic plate theory after it was formulated in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

On the scientific side, these extended rifts appeared deep beneath the surface of the earth, as landmarks of its crust. The Quran's preceding suggestion to this hidden reality deep underground gives further weight to it truly being the Word of Allaah.