Erta Ale Volcano, Ethiopia. Lava lakes of Erta Ale volcano Erta Ale and Danakil Ethiopia

In the northeast of Ethiopia, in the Danakil Desert, is located active volcano Erta Ale, in the crater of which you can see streams of molten lava escaping from the very center of the earth. Due to the constant activity, as a result of which clouds of smoke appear over the surface of the volcano every now and then, the Erta Ale volcano got its name, translated into Russian meaning “Smoking Volcano”.

Erta Ale is a basalt shield volcano, one of five volcanoes on our planet, in the heart of which there is a lava lake. But only Erta Ale has not one, but two such sites. The tectonic pattern on the surface of the lava lakes of the Erta Ale volcano is constantly changing. Here you can see both long-frozen areas of magma, forming a thin crust, and very fresh, easily destroyed islands. This process is accompanied by chaotic bursts of bright red molten lava and emissions of accumulated gas. According to the chemical composition of Erta Ale magma, it is compared with deep-sea volcanoes located in the middle part mountain range at the bottom of the ocean. In both cases, a low content of silicic acid in the magma is observed.

IN recent years The volcano has become more unpredictable. If in 2004 the lake in the crater of the volcano turned into a tectonic stronghold, remaining in this state for almost 20 months, then in November 2010 the volcano woke up with unexpected force. The eruption was accompanied by tremors, which significantly affected the state of the faults in the northeast. Scientists are closely monitoring changes in the volcano's activity, as it is located in an important seismic zone called the Afar Triangle. Noticeable plate shifts and an increase in the width of faults can significantly change geographical map our planet, in particular, affect the entire continent of Africa.

Year after year, persistently overcoming all difficulties dangerous journey, about 500-1000 tourists and researchers get to the crater of the volcano. Being so close to the center of the volcano is incredibly difficult due to the high air temperature (about 50°C) and acidic fumes. Moreover, to get to the lava lakes in the crater of the volcano, you need to walk about 13 km.

Erta Ale Volcano - PHOTO

One of the most inaccessible volcanoes in the world is Erta Ale. The Great African Rift, 6,000 kilometers long, is located in northern Ethiopia. Deep in the tectonic basin, the earth's crust, under enormous pressure, is torn into three plates, which move away from each other, dividing Africa. Afar Basin (Afar Basin) is located in the active part of the rift, which arose due to volcanic activity.

Features of the Erta Ale volcano

Erta Ale, a mystical volcano located in the Danakil Depression. The Danakil Depression, a piece of land heated by magma, is the most unpredictable geological zone on the planet. The Afar Desert is considered the most inhospitable and hottest on the planet. This desert has always scared off explorers, including because of the cruel customs of the Afar tribes.

Erta Ale is the most inaccessible volcano given its remoteness, temperature changes and hostile environment around. At the bottom of a huge caldera there is a unique lava lake called Erta Ale. There are concentric faults around the lake, constant tremors collapse entire layers along the edges of the crater.

Lava lake- the result of a confluence of many factors, this is a huge accumulation of magma fed from a deep source with its own flow. The hot magma comes out, cools and sinks again, convection occurs. In order for a lava lake to exist for years, it is necessary that the heat of the hot stream feeding the lake exactly compensates for the loss of heat from the surface stream, which then goes back to depth. This mixing of matter is a very fragile and unstable balance. As soon as this balance is disrupted, the lake cools down; for example, in 2004 it froze for 20 months.

A lava lake is just a moment in the life of a volcano, Erta Ale emerged from the depths of the sea and gradually formed about 4 million years ago. The first evidence of the presence of a lava lake in this place dates back to 1890, then no one saw it, but red flashes in the sky clearly indicated the presence of such a phenomenon. The first person to see Erta Ale with his own eyes was Garun Taziev in 1960. The oval caldera is 1800 meters long and 750 meters wide. The volcano has two craters - southern and northern.

A caldera is a huge volcanic crater that requires a very strong eruption that will empty part of the magma reservoir or the entire reservoir. Then, when the magma pocket is emptied, the magma no longer supports the roof of the reservoir and the volcano itself collapses inward, forming a caldera. The caldera is often the same size as the magma reservoir. Over the years, lava filled the caldera to the brim, and it flowed down the southern and northern sides of the crater.

Erta Ale, mystical mountain

Erta Ale - means smoking mountain, Afar legend says that you cannot approach its peak because the spirits of shepherds on winged horses rush around it and do not let anyone near it.

A stream of hot, light magma rises and flows across the surface, cools down, becomes heavier, and again sinks to depth, where it dissolves in the magma. The lake is fed from a deep source - a magma reservoir, and below it is a source that feeds the rift. The surface of the lake is cooling, but it is still hot and soft, and under the pressure of fresh, constantly rising magma, it folds.

At the other end of the caldera, the Erta Ale volcano, the southern crater is located, there is active fumarole activity. In the depths of the crater, ornithos smoke; they are formed from clots of lava that are layered on top of each other, creating small conical structures. This lake was active until 1987, bubbling just a few meters from the crater ridge, and then it froze for many years. In 2004, lava suddenly appeared in just four days, the whole sky was ablaze with a glow, it was visible 80 kilometers from the volcano.

In the northern and southern craters, there was a time during two years from 1972 to 1974 when both lava lakes overflowed at the same time for two years. Lava filled the caldera to the brim, and then began to flow down the slopes of the volcano on the southern and northern sides.

On the Erta Ale volcano there are goddesses of fire, strength and creation - these are very thin threads of hot ash stretched by the wind, stretching they take the form of long and thin hair. The gases escaping from the volcano consist mainly of steam, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, methane and a rare gas such as radon.

A lava lake is the top of a magma column that has reached the surface - a kind of window into the bowels of the earth. This lake is permanently connected to a magma chamber located at a depth of 2 kilometers. The subject of research on lava lakes is extensive; for example, by installing microphones as close to the lake as possible, you can measure the pressure of gas bubbles emerging from the magma chamber and bursting on the surface. This way we can conclude about the depth of the volcanic vent, and sometimes about its diameter. Also, using a telemeter, you can accurately determine the level of the lake. Regular fluctuations of the lake are 2 - 3 meters, they are repeated every 2 - 4 hours. Aerial photography allows you to see regular changes in the relief of both craters, landslides, dips, swelling reaching tens of centimeters and even meters.

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 in the whole world famous volcanoes with lava lakes, 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 a 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?

Closest to the Erta Ale volcano locality- 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.

Volcano Nyiragongo located in the Virunga National Park in Congo on the border with Rwanda. It is one of Africa's most active volcanoes, with 34 recorded eruptions since 1882, 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, violent eruption. 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 in the thousands.

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 suffocation 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 the 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 at the 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. Having picked up tickets to central office national park and a cook with provisions at the watchtowers of the airport, partially filled with lava flow of the 2002 eruption, we rushed to 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. At 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 lake of fire, 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.