Ardoukoba

Cinder cone Ardoukoba, in the background of Lake Assal

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The volcano Ardoukoba located between the Gulf Ghoubbet -el- Kareb of the Red Sea and Lake Assal in the same Ardoukoba Rift directly on the East African grave breach. This ever-expanding area is one of the most active volcanic areas in the world.

Structure and Functioning

The volcano is a truncated cone -shaped cinder cone of about 150-250 m in height with a shallow crater rim. Due to the depth of the earth's surface in this area of ​​the crater rim of the volcano is located about 5 m above sea level. With the Ascheauswürfen some lava flows have formed that cover the floor of the Rift. The eruption, which led to the emergence of Ardoukoba, began on November 7, 1978 after a day of more than 800 earthquakes. After that opened parallel to the rift zone about 25 to 500 m long column, which produced lava flows and created today's cinder cone Ardoukoba. The eruption ended on 14 November 1978 a total of more than 12 million cubic meters of ash and lava were ejected.

Geological environment

The Ardoukoba is one of several volcanoes that have formed in the Ardoukoba Rift that is open between the Lake Assal and the Gulf of Tadjoura over a distance of about twelve kilometers of the surface. In its surroundings drift three tectonic plates, the Nubian, Arabic and Somali, apart ( Afar Triangle ). In the distant future, the Horn of Africa is separated from the African continent, forming a large new island, and ultimately create a new Ocean from the Red Sea. In about 10 km wide Ardoukoba area a large number of slag and cinder cones were formed. Through interaction of magma with sea water caused a number of tuff cones, some of them as islands in the sea. The volcanoes were probably formed in the last 3000 years, as lava flows overlap in some places around 5000 years old lake deposits.