Dabbahu Volcano (also Boina, Boyna or Moina) is an

active volcano An active volcano is a volcano which is either erupting or is likely to erupt in the future. An active volcano which is not currently erupting is known as a dormant volcano. Overview Tlocene Epoch. Most volcanoes are situated on the Pacific ...

located in the remote

Afar Region The Afar Region (; aa, Qafar Rakaakayak; am, አፋር ክልል), formerly known as Region 2, is a regional state in northeastern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Afar people. Its capital is the planned city of Semera, which lies on the pave ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. This

stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and peri ...

is part of the

Afar Triangle The Afar Triangle (also called the Afar Depression) is a geological depression caused by the Afar Triple Junction, which is part of the Great Rift Valley in East Africa. The region has disclosed fossil specimens of the very earliest hominins; t ...

(Afar Depression), a highly active volcanic region which includes

Erta Ale Erta Ale (or Ertale or Irta'ale; Amharic: ኤርታሌ) is a continuously active basaltic shield volcano in the Afar Region of northeastern Ethiopia. It is situated in the Afar Depression, a barren desert area. Erta Ale is the most active volcano ...

. An eruption on September 26, 2005 created a large fissure in the ground, known as the Dabbahu fissure.

2005 eruption

The only eruption of the volcano in

recorded history Recorded history or written history describes the historical events that have been recorded in a written form or other documented communication which are subsequently evaluated by historians using the historical method. For broader world his ...

occurred on September 26, 2005. Preceding the eruption, the ground swelled and an

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...

swarm consisting of over 130 events occurred. Earthquakes measured 4.2 on the

Richter scale The Richter scale —also called the Richter magnitude scale, Richter's magnitude scale, and the Gutenberg–Richter scale—is a measure of the strength of earthquakes, developed by Charles Francis Richter and presented in his landmark 1935 ...

. The eruption began 5 kilometers northeast of the summit. Ash from the eruption darkened the area surrounding the volcano for nearly 3 days. The eruption formed a 500 m long fissure and a wide

pumice cone Volcanic cones are among the simplest volcanic landforms. They are built by ejecta from a volcanic vent, piling up around the vent in the shape of a cone with a central crater. Volcanic cones are of different types, depending upon the nature and s ...

at the fissure's southern end. Ash reached as far as the administrative center of Teru, located southwest of the volcano.

Plate tectonics

The volcano is located along the

Somali Plate The Somali Plate is a minor tectonic plate which straddles the Equator in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is currently in the process of separating from the African Plate along the East African Rift Valley. It is approximately centered on the isl ...

. Researchers predict that the land along this region, known as the

East African Rift The East African Rift (EAR) or East African Rift System (EARS) is an active continental rift zone in East Africa. The EAR began developing around the onset of the Miocene, 22–25 million years ago. In the past it was considered to be part of ...

, will eventually break away, creating a new island consisting of eastern Ethiopia and

Djibouti Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red ...

with a new sea in between. Using seismic data from 2005, a research study predicted that this new ocean would likely be formed in about one million years.

Life

Scientists are studying the fissure for

extremophile An extremophile (from Latin ' meaning "extreme" and Greek ' () meaning "love") is an organism that is able to live (or in some cases thrive) in extreme environments, i.e. environments that make survival challenging such as due to extreme tem ...

References

{{Geography of Africa Afar Region Active volcanoes Natural disasters in Ethiopia Stratovolcanoes of Ethiopia Volcanoes of the Great Rift Valley Mountains of Ethiopia Pleistocene stratovolcanoes 2005 disasters in Ethiopia

2005 eruption

Plate tectonics

Life

See also

References