A long, low basin in eastern Africa has spent millions of years collecting some of the most important clues to human origins. Now it is offering another kind of evidence, this time from far below the ...

The desert floor in Ethiopia looks fixed and ancient, but it is moving. Across the Afar region and down the East African Rift, the African continent is being pulled apart by forces deep below the ...

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: Though East Africa used to be more of a savanna than a desert, it has dried out over the millennia. With less water in the lakes, especially Lake ...

Beneath East Africa’s Turkana Rift, scientists have found the crust is thinning to a critical point, suggesting the continent is gradually breaking apart. This “necking” process marks an advanced ...

Lake Turkana in northern Kenya is often called the cradle of humankind. Home to some of the earliest hominids, its fossil-rich basin has helped scientists piece together the story of human evolution.

Deep beneath East Africa, the planet is quietly rewriting its own map. A colossal crack is opening in the crust, slowly enough that no one alive today will see the final result, yet fast enough that ...

The “Samburu Special Five” — the reticulated giraffe, Grévy’s zebra, beisa oryx, gerenuk and Somali ostrich — exist only in northern Kenya, southern Ethiopia and Somalia, where they have evolved ...