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Erta Ale volcano (Ethiopia), update on recent nearby fissure eruption

Wednesday Aug 22, 2007 10:01 AM | Age: 5 yrs

The new fissure eruption in the Danakil near Erta Ale earlier this month, on 14-15 August, is reported to have killed five people, hundreds of camels and and drove more than 2 000 people from their homes. According to Ethiopian news sources, the "eruption also opened a 10km crack in the ground and spewed lava 300m in the air."
It is likely this is in fact not an eruption related to Erta Ale volcano. A more likely candidate could benearby Dabbahu volcano, a new fissure which had its first historic eruption in late Sept (26) - early Oct 2005. It could also be even a new volcano born from a new fissure: a new episode in the dramatic chapter of Earth's History called the "Splitting apart of East Africa". The occurrence of fissures and fissure eruptions in the area is not surprising, given the very geologic nature of the Afar triangle. Here, the two segments of the African plate and the adjacient Arabian plate are being pulled apart from each other, as East AFrica is slowly moving away from the rest of the continent. At the same time, the Red sea and the Gulf of Aden are widening and those movements are combined in the triple junction, which is the Afar triangle. Here, the crust is continuing to thin and the ground is sinking, until until one day, in geologically near future, the land will be flooded by the Red Sea to mark the initial stage of a new ocean.
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