Final desiccation of the afar rift, ethiopia.

Stable and radioactive isotope studies of ancient corals and mollusks from a fossil atoll in the Afar Rift indicate that final separation of the Afar Depression from the Red Sea occurred not earlier than 32,000 years ago. Desiccation followed within a few thousand years. The events recorded in the Afar Rift illustrate the processes occurring in the incipient stages leading to the formation of an oceanic body by rifting of a continental block.