Erta Ale

Erta Ale (Afar 'Ertá'alé or 'Irtá'alé "mountain that smokes") is a basaltic shield volcano in the Afar Triangle (Danakil) in northeastern Ethiopia that rises to 613 m (2,860 ft).

It lies on the rift zone of the East African Rift Valley, a continental suture that crosses East Africa for 6000 km to Mozambique. The volcano rises above the floor of a dry sea that was created when the Danakil block was uplifted by plate tectonics, separating the Afar Triangle from the Red Sea.

Its crater on the summit measures 700 m × 1600 m. Another depression belonging to Erta Ale is located southeast of the main peak, is bounded by escarpments and has dimensions of 1800 m × 3100 m.

Erta Ale is part of the Erta Ale volcanic chain named after it, whose highest volcano is Ale Bagu at 1031m.

Lava Lake

Erta Ale is one of only a few volcanoes in the world whose caldera contains an active lava lake. The crater has a diameter of 50 m and is 85 m deep, halfway up there is a terrace formed by solidified lava. The lake's lava has also solidified on the surface, and convection causes it to break into thin sheets that drift across the lake. The processes that control the formation and movement of these plates correspond on a very small scale to those of continental drift and plate tectonics.

In January 2017, strong activity was observed within this lava lake, resulting in a sharp change in the amount of lava, even overflowing the lake.