The latest in my Volcano Profiles series, this one on Erta Ale in Ethiopia.
The summit crater at Erta Ale in 1994
Location: The Afar region of Ethiopia.
Height: 613 m / 2,011 feetTectonic setting: Erta Ale (meaning "smoking mountain") is part of the East African Rift, where the African Continent is tearing apart along a seam that runs from the Red Sea/Gulf of Aden (two other arms of the rift themselves) south through eastern Africa. Many of the large lakes of eastern Africa such as Lakes Albert, Tanganyika, Nyasa and Kariba fill rift valleys created by the cracking of the continental plate from rising asthenopheric mantle. This upwelling produces the magma underneath the rift.Type: Shield volcanoHazards: Lava flows - the volcano has a long-lived active lava lake, possibly as long as the last 100 years (Oppenheimer and Francis, 1998). There is also evidence of more explosive eruptions (VEI 2) ...
