the.com/rift
a crack so committed it builds oceans and breaks continents up forever.
means A rift is a split, crack, or break — whether in rock, in the ground, or between people once close.
from From Old Norse 'ript' meaning a breach or breaking of an agreement, related to 'rifa,' to tear or rive apart. English took it up in the Middle Ages first for literal cracks and fissures; the figurative 'rift between friends' came later, the metaphor leaning hard on that original sense of something torn that won't easily knit back together. A close cousin of the verb 'rive,' as in 'riven.'
valley makerEast Africa is splitting into two continents now
speedRifts widen slower than fingernails grow
ocean birthThe Atlantic began as a rift in Pangaea
deepestLake Baikal fills a rift over a mile deep
other worldsMars hosts Valles Marineris, a rift dwarfing Earth's