Encore - Smoking Mountain Lava Lake

August 01, 2020

Erta ale

Today and every Saturday Earth Science Picture of the Day invites you to rediscover favorites from the past. Saturday posts feature an EPOD that was chosen by viewers like you in our monthly Viewers' Choice polls. Join us as we look back at these intriguing and captivating images.

Photographer: Carlo Dellarole
Summary Author: Carlo Dellarole

September 2012 Viewer's ChoiceSeen above is a lava lake in the caldera of Erta Ale Volcano. Erta Ale volcano (meaning Smoking Mountain in the local Afar language) is located in the Danakil depression of the Afar Triangle, in the northeastern region of Ethiopia. It's one of the four active volcanoes which occasionally generate a lava lake (the others are Kilauea, Erebus and Nyiragongo).

Erta Ale Range is situated along the northern branch of the African Rift and outlines an extraordinary geodynamic context, showing a portion of mid-ocean ridge rising to the Earth's surface. This process occurs along divergent boundaries, where two plates are moving apart: in this case, the Arabian plate moving eastwards and the African plate westwards. 

Photo Details: Camera: Canon EOS 500D; Lens: EF-S10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM; Focal Length: 10mm; Focus Distance: 4.29m; Aperture: f/3.5; Exposure Time: 0.040 s (1/25); ISO equiv: 200; Software: Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows). 

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