Pieces of Nubia (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798297098695)

The KwaZulu Natal region is seismically active. That's about all that has been said so far. The earthquake and tsunami threat to Richards Bay and Durban is a possibility, but there's not enough evidence to back-up the warning of a 100-year return of the magnitude 6.8 event off Cape St Lucia in 1932. The story sets this return for a period somewhere between 2027 and 2035 with South Africa and Mozambique in the path of catastrophic destruction and death. 'Pieces of Nubia' threads a link between the volcanic gutting of Ethiopia to form a new ocean, as part of the East African Rift System, down through Tanzania and Botswana to South Africa's eastern region accommodating the rhythmic cycles of tectonic-rifting.
They call it the world's largest construction site, the East Africa Rift System (EARS). Extending 25 degrees east to 40 degrees east; and 12 degrees north to 15 degrees south; with some argument that it reaches South Africa as far down as 35 degrees south. It is home to the largest of only two Super-plumes in the world, the 'African Super-plume'. The other, the smaller one, is viciously chomping away along the rim of the Pacific, the 'Ring of Fire'.
EARS is always awake, quiet most of the time but continuously active, releasing pent-up stress with earthquakes, and ready to unload the contents of half a super-volcano. Just one of the bigger baby-steps that agitates for the break-up of Africa can go further in cracking open a craton, or explode the so-called grand-daddy of network-faults with a shake-up that could kill two to three million, disrupt global air traffic and destroy the economies of at least fifteen countries.
Problem is, Africa is not ready to deal with the worst that nature can deal. Dr Humphrey Khumalo tracks these developments, intent on exposing the locations of major earthquake and volcanic eruptions before they explode across the eastern margin of Africa.