Fentale is a

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

located in

Awash National Park Awash National Park is a National parks in Ethiopia, national park in Ethiopia. Located at the border of Oromia state and Afar Region, Afar state, the park covers an area of 827 square kilometers, most of it lies at an altitude of 900 meters. ...

which was found in the

Afar Region The Afar Region (; ; ), formerly known as Region 2, is a Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in northeastern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Afar people. Its capital is the planned city of Semera, which lies on the paved Awash, Ethiopia, Awash� ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

. It is the highest point of

Fentale Feentaalee is one of the districts in the Oromia of Ethiopia. Part of the East Shewa Zone located in the Great Rift Valley, Fentale is bordered on the southeast by the Arsi Zone, on the southwest by Boset, on the northwest by the Amhara Region, ...

woreda Districts of Ethiopia, also called woredas (; ''woreda''), are the third level of the administrative divisions of Ethiopia – after ''List of zones of Ethiopia, zones'' and the ''Regions of Ethiopia, regional states''. These districts are f ...

History

Philip Briggs describes Mount Fentale as being crowned by a crater. Briggs concludes that this volcano "is responsible for the bleak hundred-year-old lava flows that cross the road immediately west of

Metehara Metehara (, ) is a town in central Ethiopia. Located in the East Shewa Zone of the Oromia Region, it has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 947 meters above sea level. Access to Metehara includes a station on the Addis Ababa� ...

, and its steam vents can sometimes be seen displaying from the surrounding plains at night." The date of these eruptions is fixed by the investigations of the early 19th-century explorer

William Cornwallis Harris Major Sir William Cornwallis Harris (baptised 2 April 1807 – died 9 October 1848) was an English military engineer, artist and hunter. Life and career Early life The son of James Harris of Wittersham, Kent, he entered Addiscombe Milita ...

, whom David Buxton states first encountered this volcano and its lava beds in 1842. By questioning the natives, Harris concluded that the most recent eruptions had taken place 30 years before his arrival. Throughout late 2024 and early 2025, some seismic activity occurred near Fentale as the volcano's activity increased.

References

Mountains of Ethiopia Stratovolcanoes of Ethiopia Ethiopian Highlands Geography of Oromia Calderas of Ethiopia {{Oromia-geo-stub

History

See also

References