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Erta Ale erupting within the Danakil Depression Mount Ayalu, the westernmost and older of two volcanoes at the southern end of the Danakil Depression. The Danakil Depression is the northern part of the Afar Triangle or Afar Depression in Ethiopia and Eritrea, [1] [2] a geological depression that has resulted from the divergence of three tectonic plates in the Horn of Africa.
The plateau extends in an east–west direction evidenced by north–south striking grabens, strike-slip faulting and GPS data. [20] In the northern region, strike-slip faulting constitutes the dominant style of tectonics while in the south, the dominant tectonic domain is east-west extension on north–south trending normal faults. [21]
A third major plantion surface and uniformity formed in the following a tectonic event in the Early Cretaceous that tilted carbonates in the Tigray and Dire Dawa-Harar areas. [1] On top of this surface lies a series a fluvial sediments. [1] Depositions of marine sediments continued in eastern Ethiopia's Ogaden basin until the Eocene. [1]
The Depression overlaps the borders of Eritrea, Djibouti and the entire Afar Region of Ethiopia; and it contains the lowest point in Africa, Lake Assal, Djibouti, at 155 m (509 ft) below sea level. The Awash River is the main waterflow into the region, but it runs dry during the annual dry season, and ends as a chain of saline lakes .
Erta Ale is located in the Afar triple junction where three tectonic plates split apart: the African plate, the Arabian plate and the Somali plate. Specifically, it lies almost at the end of the southern Red Sea rift , where tectonic extension (via normal faults ) proceeds in conjunction with igneous intrusions to generate a new oceanic crust ...
It has been argued that the current Ethiopian plateau is a result of the most recent uplift of 500 metres (1,600 ft) estimated to be an Oligocene–early Miocene event. But the most accepted argument of the plateau is the result of the Paleogene flood-basalts. The uplift associated with both domes has resulted in major structural features due ...
Ethiopia has a high central plateau, the Abyssinian Highlands (or Ethiopian Highlands) that varies from 1,290 to 3,000 m (4,232 to 9,843 ft) above sea level, with some 25 mountains whose peaks rise over 4,000 meters (13,200ft), the highest being Ras Dashen at 4,543 meters (14,538ft).
The Danakil Alps are a highland region in Ethiopia and Eritrea with peaks over 1000 metres in height and a width varying between 40 and 70 kilometres. [1] The area is known in the Afar language as Arrata. The alps lie along the southern Red Sea [2] to the east of the Danakil Depression [3] and separate it from the sea. [4]