Ardoukoba

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Ardoukôba
أردوكوبا
Cinder cone of the Ardoukôba, in the background Lake Assal

Cinder cone of the Ardoukôba, in the background Lake Assal

height 298  m
location Danakil Depression , Djibouti
Coordinates 11 ° 36 '38 "  N , 42 ° 28' 33"  E Coordinates: 11 ° 36 '38 "  N , 42 ° 28' 33"  E
Ardoukoba (Djibouti)
Ardoukoba
Type Crevasse volcano
Last eruption 1978
Column in the Ardoukôba Rift

The Ardoukôba volcano ( Arabic أردوكوبا) is located between the Ghoubbet-el-Kharab Gulf of the Red Sea and Lake Assal in the Ardoukôba Rift of the same name, directly on the East African rift valley . This ever expanding area is one of the most volcanically active areas in the world.

Structure and activity

The volcano is a truncated cone- shaped ash cone about 145-250 m high with a flat crater rim. Due to the depth of the earth's surface in this area, the crater rim of the volcano is about 5 m above sea level. With the ash ejections, some lava flows have formed that cover the bottom of the rift. The eruption that led to the formation of the Ardoukôba began on November 7, 1978 after a day with over 800 earthquakes . After that, cracks about 25 to 500 m long opened parallel to the rift zone, which produced lava flows and created the current cinder cone of the Ardoukôba. The eruption ended on November 14, 1978, totaling more than 12 million cubic meters of ash and lava.

Geological environment

The Ardoukôba is one of several volcanoes that have formed in the Ardoukôba Rift, which is open to the surface over a distance of about twelve kilometers between Lake Assal and the Gulf of Tadjoura . In its surroundings, three tectonic plates, the Nubian , Arabian and Somali , drift apart ( Afar triangle ). In the distant future, the Horn of Africa will separate from the African continent, form a large new island, and ultimately create a new ocean from the Red Sea. A large number of cinder and ash cones were formed in the approximately 10 km wide Ardoukôba area. The interaction of magma with seawater created a series of tuff cones, some of them as islands in the sea. The volcanoes were probably formed in the last 3,000 years, as lava flows cover some 5,000-year-old lake deposits in some places.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Permalink GeoNames
  2. ↑ Ardoukoba in the Global Volcanism Program of the Smithsonian Institution (English)

Web links

Commons : Ardoukôba  - collection of images, videos and audio files