Thursday, December 2, 2010

Erta Ale fills up its crater

Erta Ale is a shield volcano in the remote wilderness of the Afar Triangle of Ethiopia. It has been for many years the site of one of nature's most interesting phenomena, a lava lake. However, recently, the lava lake has been rising, filling the inner crater and spilling out into the larger summit crater/caldera. A report (in PDF) has full coverage of this interesting development.

I sure wish this would happen to the summit vent at Halemaumau!

Report: Erta Ale eruption observations

Here's a picture of what the lava lake used to look like, until recently (photo taken by Marco Fulle of Stromboli Online)

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