Erta Ale, the Smoking Mountain
In one of the hottest places on Earth, a volcano has held a lake of molten lava in its crater for decades. The Afar call it the smoking mountain.
What was reported
Erta Ale is a volcano in the Danakil Depression of north-eastern Ethiopia, one of the lowest and hottest places on land. Its name in the Afar language means 'smoking mountain', and local people have long given it a wide berth; some call its crater the gateway to hell.
For most of the time since at least the 1960s it has held a lake of molten rock, one of only a handful in the world, that bubbles, splits and glows red at night.
Explanations offered
The Danakil sits where three of the Earth's plates are pulling apart, and magma rises close to the surface there. Erta Ale's lava lake stays liquid because fresh magma keeps circulating up from below. Since 2017 its activity has changed, with the lake draining and refilling.
- When
- Known for centuries; studied since the 1960s
- Where
- Afar, Ethiopia
- Witnesses
- Afar herders, scientists and travellers
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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