Tag: Afar

Erta Ale is an Ethiopian volcano located in the Afar region, in the northeast of the country, within the East African Rift Valley. Standing 613 meters high with a base diameter of 30 kilometers, its broad, low-profile shape classifies it as a “shield volcano.”

At the summit of this highly active volcano lies a caldera containing two pit craters. The South Pit, 200 meters in diameter, is currently the most impressive as it houses a permanent lava lake where molten rock reaches temperatures of 1,200 degrees Celsius. The lake’s level fluctuates constantly; in January 2017, it rose high enough to overflow. By April 2017, the level had dropped, offering observers a spectacular and cyclical phenomenon of emptying and refilling, which can be seen in the videos at the end of this article.

Location of the Erta Ale volcano

In the Afar language, “Erta Ale” means “Smoking Mountain”

From the base of the volcano, columns of smoke escaping from the craters are clearly visible. Because of this, the Afar people have long considered this mountain “cursed.” This photograph also highlights the very flattened profile characteristic of shield volcanoes.

View from the North Pit crater. In the background to the right, the South Pit of Erta Ale is visible.

The surroundings of the craters form a dramatic landscape

The “cliff” visible in the image above is actually a section of the caldera. A caldera (from the Latin for “cauldron”) forms when the summit of a volcano collapses after a massive ejection of lava leaves the magma chamber hollow. The Erta Ale caldera is oval-shaped, measuring 1.6 km by 0.7 km.

The lava lake of the South Pit, photographed at night. In April 2017, the level was approximately 80 meters below the rim.

Small lava burst

The lava is kept molten by extremely hot gases rising from deep underground. These gases create lava fountains that are particularly impressive when the lake level is low.

Intermittently, the lava lake disappeared into the depths of the volcano before returning to its original level. In this photo, the lake has completely vanished.

The South Pit at the end of the day. The observer at the top right provides a sense of the crater’s immense scale.

More observers on the edge of the South Pit

Lava at the surface cools and solidifies into dark, shifting plates

Detail of the lava lake surface

Another view of the lake’s surface

Lava explosion

Sunset over the desolate landscape of Erta Ale

The Toucan on the edge of the South Pit

Observing the smoke plumes under the stars

Taming the smoke plumes rising from the crater

The South Pit once emptied. This drainage process occurs in just a few minutes.

Close-up of the bottom of the crater after the lava lake has drained into the bowels of the earth

At this moment, the heat radiating from the edge of the pit becomes truly unbearable.

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