Scientists from Bristol were among a group visiting the Afar Rift in Ethiopia in November when a volcano in the region began erupting - the first time that scientists have witnessed such an occurrence there. Lorraine Field, a PhD student in the Department of Earth Sciences, took photographs and video clips of the eruption, which is the latest event in a long process that may ultimately lead to the birth of a new ocean. Bristol is one of the members of the Afar Rift Consortium, an international group studying this rupture in the earth's surface. Read more
A team of geologists and geophysicists dispatched to Northeast Ethiopia, where volcano has recently erupted, confirmed that the eruption caused surface displacement in the area. The volcano has recently occurred in the area located at 65-kms northwest of Semera, capital of Afar regional state. Geologists drawn from Institute of Geophysics, Space Sciences, Astronomy and Earth Science Department of the Addis Ababa University, Universites of Cambridge and Oxford told ENA over the weekend that the volcano, which occurred on June 29th , 2009, has created about 4.5-kms opening within a 60-km-long dyke created in the area in 2005.
19 March 2009 A Durham University scientist gets as close-up as you possibly can to the hottest place on Earth, in a new BBC TV programme to be aired this week. Earth scientist Dougal Jerram will be shown descending on ropes into the fiery furnace of the volcano Erta Ale in the Danakil Desert in Northern Ethiopia. It's officially the hottest place on the planet and one of the most geologically active and hostile environments known.
A volcano in Ethiopia's northeastern Afar region erupted on Monday, researchers said on Wednesday, prompting a minor earthquake and record lava flows covering 300 square kilometres. Addis Ababa University's Institute of Geophysics, Space Sciences and Astronomy said a volcano around the Arteale area spewed lava around noon on Monday.
Erta Ale is an isolated basaltic shield volcano in Ethiopia. The broad, 50-km-wide volcano rises more than 600 m from below sea level in the barren Danakil depression. Erta Ale is the namesake and most prominent feature of the Erta Ale Range. The 613-m-high volcano contains a 0.7 x 1.6 km, elliptical summit crater housing steep-sided pit craters. Another larger 1.8 x 3.1 km wide depression elongated parallel to the trend of the Erta Ale range is located to the SE of the summit and is bounded by curvilinear fault scarps on the SE side. Fresh-looking basaltic lava flows from these fissures have poured into the caldera and locally overflowed its rim. The summit caldera is renowned for one, or sometimes two long-term lava lakes that have been active since at least 1967, or possibly since 1906. Recent fissure eruptions have occurred on the northern flank of Erta Ale.
A volcano erupted in the remote desert of northern Ethiopia, and two people were missing, the state-run news agency said. The volcano spewed lava for about two hours Sunday in the Afar region, a spectacular yet barren expanse of volcanoes and ancient salt mines where bandits and rebels operate.
"A river of lava cascading from the volcano, which began erupting in Terru district of the Afar regional state on Sunday, forced residents of Dayulu and Gomoyta villages, to leave their homes and flee for their dear lives" - Mohammed Ayu, regional official.
The volcano was not named in the reports, but it probably is Mount Arteale, the only active volcano in Ethiopia, which erupted in September 2005 after an earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale.
According to the Ethiopian News Agency; after an earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale, Mount Arteale, about 1,000 kilometres northeast of Addis Ababa, erupted on September 26.
50,000 nomads in Ethiopia's Afar region were displaced as a result of the eruption of the volcano. Large areas of land are now covered by lava. There were no reports of human casualties but hundreds of head of livestock were killed.
"A committee has been set up at regional level to study the magnitude of the damage caused as a result of the earthquake and volcano... and to relocate or resettle more than 50,000 people from the area" - Ishmael Alisero, Afar state chief administrator.
The displaced people would be moved to Fenti Zone, about 400 kilometres south of the volcano-hit zone. In addition, the team - made up of government officials and disaster response experts - would facilitate delivery of humanitarian supplies to the displaced nomads.