Astonishing drone footage shows the extent of an enormous crack stretching seven miles which opened up overnight in south-western Kenya due to tectonic plate movement.
The huge crevice, which continues to grow, appeared after a period of heavy rainfall and caused part of the Nairobi-Narok highway to collapse.
The earth split open at Kenya's Great Rift Valley in mid-March leaving motorists stranded for hours after the highway collapsed and sparking the evacuations of some homes.
The Great Rift Valley refers to a lowland region from the Middle East to Mozambique where tectonic plates move apart.
It is made up of multiple rifts running through the same system.
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The most recent crack that has emerged in Kenya is from the East African Rift.
It is 50 feet deep and 65 feet wide in some parts.
Scientists said that the enormous crack appeared due to movements of the tectonic plates beneath Africa.
Professor John Cosgrove, professor of Structural geology at Imperial College London said that in east Africa tectonic plates are currently being stressed in an east-west motion which can cause cracks in the earth’s crust.
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“The whole region is undergoing extension, the pulling apart (of plates) continues at a constant rate” he said.
Retired Emeritus Professor of Sedimentary Geology Professor Philip A Allen explained: “Eastern Africa is underlain by anomalously hot material, which causes the Earth's surface to be up-domed on a large scale.
“Superimposed on the domal uplifts are the well-known rift valleys of Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanganyika.
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“The recently discovered crack would be just one of a swarm of similar features accommodating the east-west extension.”
Some scientists have predicted that the crack could grow over millions of years splitting the country in two, but Professor Cosgrove dismissed this theory.
“It is what scientists describe as a failed rift, the seismic force is not strong enough to pull the country apart and cause an ocean to form.”