Ethiopia Erta Ale volcano. Fire Lake of the Smoking Mountain Erta Ale. Erta Ale Research

Erta Ale Volcano (Ethiopia) - detailed description, location, reviews, photos and videos.

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“Smoking Mountain” - this is how the name of the Erta Ale volcano is translated from Ethiopian, but those who saw it with their own eyes prefer to call it less sublimely and more specifically - the road to hell. And this is not an exaggeration at all: Erta Ale is one of the few constantly active volcanoes on the planet with regular eruptions and two whole lakes of hot lava “included”. Such a violent temperament is not at all surprising: Erta Ale is located in the very heart of the Afar Triangle - a zone of intense volcanic activity, where, like billions of years ago, the formation of the Earth's surface continues. However, the hellish conditions of “vacation” on Erta Ale do not frighten avid travelers: every year about a thousand tourists come here to stand on the edge of a hot crater, admiring the play of the fiery fissures of the lava lake, wander along the slopes black from solidified lava and simply breathe the Erta Ale air, temperature which reaches +50 °C.

A little geography

The Erta Ale volcano is located in northeastern Ethiopia in the remote Afar region of the Danakil Desert, a center of volcanic activity East Africa and one of the few places on the planet where preserved to this day active volcanoes with lava lakes in the crater. Erta Ale is also famous for the fact that there are two such lakes near the volcano - this makes it the only volcano of its kind on Earth. The volcano has been continuously active since 1967 and has previously had several major eruptions, with the earliest records dating back to the 1600s. Regular lava eruptions are one of the characteristic features Eartha Ale. Thanks to the lava pouring onto the slopes and then solidifying, the volcano grows - today it reaches 613 m (its base is located at 75 m below sea level). The caldera - the volcano basin - stretches for 1.6 km with a width of 700 m and includes two lava lakes 350 and 65 m wide.

What to see

In Erta Ale, without exaggeration, everything is beautiful: the coal-black slopes formed by centuries-old eruptions of hot lava, the impressively sized basin, and the hellish crater itself, on the edge of which it is so pleasant to sit and think about the eternal. Erta Ale is an attraction “for its own people”, so there is no tourist infrastructure here: the volcano’s mouth is not even fenced, and therefore it is necessary to exercise extreme caution, and it is better to forget about selfies altogether. As a souvenir of the volcano, you can take a piece of frozen lava - according to reviews from experienced gardeners, it is also an excellent fertilizer.

Erta Ale is especially beautiful at night, when fiery cracks in the lava lakes illuminate the slopes of the crater with a bright orange light - as if the damper of a steel furnace has been opened.

A trip to Erta Ale is often combined with a visit to the Dalol Geyser Valley - a shallow depression covered with a layer of very salty water with salt crystals rising above the surface and geysers bursting everywhere.

Practical information

Closest to Erta Ale locality- Makele city. Several tour operators offer 3-5 day 4WD jeep tours to the volcano and an 8-day camel trek. It should be borne in mind that the area is inhabited by Afar tribes that are not the most friendly towards tourists.

The activity of the Ethiopian volcano Erta Ale awakened an intense surge of magma and the overflow of one of the lava lakes. The phenomenon lasted until the collapse of the flank eruption, until January 21, The Daily Mail reports. A similar thing was observed in February 2010. Then the level of one lake rose by 30 meters (10 floors), which led to the overflow of the lake and the spread of scorching lava droplets into the atmosphere.

Scientists explain the event that happened this year as follows: in the area of ​​lava lakes (which are more than one century old), in the Afar Valley, tectonic plates shifted, as a result of which many underground volcanoes were “opened.” And on January 21, 2017, about 7 km from the top of the volcano, new cracks opened, from which burning magma erupted to the surface. It should be noted that since 1906 the lakes have been continuously seething and spraying hot rock into the surrounding areas.

In northeastern Ethiopia, in the remote Afar region, is the Erta Ale volcano ( "Smoking Mountain") is the most active volcano and one of five known to have lava lake. A unique and only volcano in the world that has two lava lakes at once. The shape of the volcano is basaltic, shield; height - 613 m; mountain system- East African rift valley. Last eruption fixed date 2012

Every year, courageously overcoming all the difficulties of a dangerous journey, about 1000 tourists and researchers reach the crater of the volcano. It is quite difficult to approach the center of the volcano due to the high air temperature - about 50 ° C and acidic vapors. But the most amazing thing is that to get to the lava lakes in the crater of the volcano, you need to walk about 13 km.

Volcano Nyiragongo located in the Virunga National Park in Congo on the border with Rwanda. This is one of the most active volcanoes Africa: Since 1882, 34 eruptions have been recorded, including many periods where activity was continuous for many years.

The main crater of the volcano is 250 meters deep and 2 km wide, and a lava lake sometimes forms in it. In terms of the amount of lava, the lake of the Nyiragongo volcano is the most voluminous of the lava lakes today. The depth of the lake largely depends on the activity of the volcano. The maximum observed lava level in the crater reached 3250m.

Nyiragongo lava is unusually liquid and flowing, such features are caused by a special chemical composition - it contains very little quartz. Thus, during an eruption, lava flows flowing along the slope of the volcano can reach speeds of 100 km/h.

Between 1894 and 1977, there was an active lava lake in the crater and on January 10, 1977, when the walls of the crater collapsed, a powerful eruption occurred. It lasted about an hour and claimed 70 lives, wiping out nearby villages, and although the exact number of deaths was impossible to determine, unofficial estimates put them at several thousand.

Today, the eruptions of the Nyiragongo volcano are considered unprecedented, because no other volcano in the world has such steeply inclined walls and a lava lake with such a dangerous composition.

Another major eruption occurred in January 2002. However, fortunately, people were warned about the danger. 400,000 people were evacuated. And yet, many who did not hear about the impending eruption paid dearly for it. 147 people died during the eruption from asphyxiation and the effects of the earthquake caused by the volcano's activity.

Six months later, Nyiragongo erupted again. The volcano continues to remain active to this day. In June 2012, a team of scientists and intrepid explorers stepped onto the shore of a lava lake boiling in the depths of the Nyiragongo crater. These photographs were taken by Oliver Grunewald during an expedition to Nyiragongo Crater Lake.

Night. My legs ache and the rain is lashing the tent. The wind seeps through the cracks under the awning and blows through the light tropical tent, forcing us to press closer and closer to each other. One can’t help but think: what are we doing here? But the rain subsides, and, emerging from under the wet hem of the tent, we take a couple of steps towards the edge of the volcano’s crater. A gust of wind blows away the steam coming from the crater, and we no longer remember either the wet tent or the chill. Even our feet no longer hurt, but want to jump with excitement, but we can’t - there is fragile pumice under our shoes, and a few hundred meters below us an orange-red lake of lava is boiling. We had already donated a tripod to the volcano, fortunately, without a camera - it was blown away by a gust of wind when it was left on the edge for just a second. Let's consider this a ritual sacrifice.

Like a giant kaleidoscope, the oval of the lake is constantly changing. In the black crust of slag on its surface, bright scarlet cracks open, like lightning splitting the night sky. Fountains of lava spurting from cracks push slabs of slag to the edges of the crater, where they melt and sink, only to rise again to the surface of this giant boiling cauldron. In minutes, tens, or even hundreds of millions of years of the planet’s history flash before us: the movement of black plates on the “surface” of the lake is a miniature copy of the movement of tectonic plates on the surface of the Earth.

We have been dreaming about climbing Nyiragongo for over two years. After visiting the lava lake at the top of Erta Ale volcano in Ethiopia, we became fascinated by volcanoes. Since then we've been able to visit Krakatau and a couple of other active fire mountains in Indonesia, as well as the notorious Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland. But only lava lakes allow you to truly get closer to the seething depths of the earth and feel the power of our planet hidden under the earth’s crust.

Lava lakes - cauldrons of bubbling molten basalt - appear and disappear periodically in volcanoes around the world, but only a few are known to be permanent. In addition, all of the five existing on this moment lava lakes are very difficult to access. One is actually in Antarctica, in the crater of Mount Erebus. Try it, get there! Another - recently reappeared in Halemaumau Crater Hawaiian volcano Kilauea is closed to visitors for security reasons: apparently, the Americans are playing it safe. There are also lava lakes in the craters of Marum and Benbow volcanoes on Ambrym Island in Vanuatu, but getting there is also not easy, and because weather conditions they are not always visible. And finally, two lava lakes are located in Africa. The lake in the Erta-Ale volcano, which we have already developed, can only be reached during an expensive multi-day jeep expedition through one of the hottest and most unsuitable deserts in the world. The other, in the crater of the Nyiragongo volcano, is located just a dozen kilometers from the million-plus city of Goma, and can be easily reached in just a day. But - and with lava lakes there is always a but - it is located on the territory of the Congo, and this imposes its own characteristics on the visit.

Goma is located on the shores of Lake Kivu, right on the border with Rwanda. This former upscale Belgian resort has been in the news in recent decades, not in the best light, either in connection with armed groups hiding in the Congo after the Rwandan genocide, or in connection with the volcanic eruption in 2002, which wiped out half the city, or in apocalyptic forecasts of a limnological catastrophe, the cause of which will be the release of huge amounts of carbon dioxide and methane dissolved in the depths of Kivu.

If you are worried “about our tourists in the Congo,” do not worry - the largest contingent of peacekeepers in the world is deployed in the Congo - about 20 thousand. Of these, about a quarter are located in the province of Nord-Kivu, and several thousand are located directly in Goma. Goma is therefore a center of calm, at least compared to the chaos occurring in other parts of the former Zaire.

Military conflicts in the area have long subsided, but for several years the volcano remained closed to visitors. The Virunga Park Authority was forced to restrict access to some parts of the park, including the volcano, due to charcoal burns. Those living near the Gazprom office should be reminded that food in Africa is mostly cooked on coals, and as a result, deforestation is big business. For several years, armed groups of charcoal burners fought with the rangers of the national park, until the “forest brothers” were finally pacified. Since March 2010, the park has been reopened to tourists.

At the border we were met by a guide named Emmanuel (a pygmy, although he himself denies this). Having given him dollars for visas, we stood waiting on a bare piece of land between Rwanda and Congo, not daring to take out our cameras and photograph the photogenic African women who, with amazing dexterity, rushed from border to border, carrying huge bowls of watermelons or cabbages on their heads. Emmanuel soon returned with a letter from the head of immigration himself, and just half an hour later, after our names, ages and places of employment had been manually recorded in three places, yellow fever vaccination certificates had been scrutinized and passports had been stamped, we were freed from the bureaucratic shackles .

A car with equipment was waiting for us on the other side of the barrier. A year ago, when we first visited the city on foot, burdened with backpacks, Goma seemed to us an ominous post-apocalyptic hole. But now, looking at it from the window of the jeep, Goma was not much different from another large African city. Picking up tickets at the central office national park and cooks with provisions watchtowers With the airport partially flooded by the lava flow of the 2002 eruption, we headed towards the volcano.

At the foot we were met by rangers with AK-47s, each of which had several additional magazines with cartridges attached with duct tape. According to the guest book, ascents occur several times a week. The first part of the climb leads through a tropical forest, the trees of which, those that survived the charcoal burns, seem to be embraced by solidified lava, which, surprisingly, did not burn the tree, but simply decided to envelop its base. Orchids nod overhead. The Gaboon viper, one of the continent's deadliest snakes, lurks in the bushes, but we notice it and avoid it. On the passes, sharp porous stones dig into tired buttocks - this is reminiscent of the lava of the 2002 eruption, when at an altitude of 2800 meters a crack opened in the volcano, through which a lake of fire flowed out, but the lava did not reach the city, but stopped here. Lava from another fissure, which opened just a few kilometers from the airport, leveled half of Goma and stopped only after reaching Lake Kivu. Steam is pouring out of a crack at an altitude of 2800 meters - this, as the guide explained, is rainwater that has seeped into the hot rocks.

At an altitude of 3000 meters the landscape changes dramatically - we are suddenly surrounded by a forest of giant lobelias. At this height they stand like quaint trees, but the higher up the slope, the smaller and smaller they become, resembling cabbage plantings rather than trees.

One more steep climb and we reach the rim of the crater. It's not dark yet. The walls of the crater go down in terraces, marking the previous levels of the lava lake. It seethes several hundred meters below us. In the light of day, the lake looks almost calm, but as darkness falls, the volcano’s activity increases, and it begins to resemble a huge boiling cauldron of tomato soup. We set up camp and try our cook's cooking.

Climbing Nyiragongo, seeing the lava lake and descending took less than a day and cost about half a thousand dollars per person, that is, about the same amount as visiting other famous attractions in the region. We tasted these delights earlier - and flew on balloons over the endless expanses of the Serengeti, and looked into the eyes of mountain gorillas in Rwanda, and visited other lava lakes... But, standing on the edge of the Nyiragongo crater, holding hands tightly, as if holding each other from the alluring kaleidoscope of the deadly lake, we do not for a second we remembered the effort, money, kilometers or time that we had to sacrifice in order to see for ourselves, with our own eyes, what our planet is capable of.

Description

Erta Ale (Ertale) is one of the most remote in the Afar region of Ethiopia and part of the East African Rift. It is a large volcanic shield with a typical cratered caldera summit.

Description

Shield volcanoes are considered to be those from which basaltic lava flows repeatedly. They are characterized by gentle slopes; at the top there is a crater that looks like a depression. This is exactly what the Erta Ale volcano is like.

The name “Erta Ale” translates as “smoking mountain”. This place is considered one of the driest and hottest on earth.

Lava lakes Erta Ale

The top of the caldera is unique due to the long-lasting lava lakes that are located in the crater of the Erta Ale volcano. One of them periodically disappears. Studies of the surface temperature of the lake indicate that the lava flow is approximately 510-580 kg/s. Fresh lava flows on the slopes of the volcano indicate that the lakes periodically overflow, and this is very dangerous for tourists.

For a lava lake to exist, its surface and the underlying magma chamber must form a single convection system, otherwise the lava will cool and harden. There are only 5 known volcanoes with lava lakes in the whole world, and since the Erta Ale volcano has 2 of them, this place is considered doubly unique.

Erta Ale eruption

Under the ground surrounding the volcano there is a huge pool of active magma. From above, the lake cools down and becomes covered with a crust, which periodically falls into the lava and forms fountains reaching several meters in height.

The Erta Ale volcano itself has erupted multiple times: in 1873, 1903, 1940, 1960, 1967, 2005 and 2007. During the penultimate eruption, many livestock died, and in 2007, two people went missing and were presumed dead during an evacuation.

Tourism on Erta Ale

Despite the harsh conditions, risk of eruption and extreme heat, the Erta Ale volcano has recently become popular tourist destination. Until 2002, it could only be seen from a helicopter. Now it is allowed to approach the crater itself and pitch tents on the volcano in order to observe this phenomenon at night. Tourists are expected to use common sense.

In 2012, an unpleasant incident occurred. A group of tourists were ambushed by militants on the edge of the Erta Ale crater. Five European tourists were killed and 4 more people were kidnapped. Since then, all tourist groups have been accompanied by armed guards.

How to get there?

The nearest settlement to the Erta Ale volcano is the city of Mekele. Local tour operators offer 3-5 day 4WD jeep tours to the volcano and an 8-day camel trek. It should be borne in mind that the area is inhabited by Afar tribes that are not the friendliest to tourists.