Dave staring into the distance as he works

Dave Ferguson (Oxford) at work in Afar. Photograph by David Pyle.

About the Afar Rift Consortium

The Afar Rift Consortium comprises scientists from the Universities of Leeds, Bristol, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Oxford, the British Geological Survey and has links with work by scientists in the U.S., Ethiopia, France and New Zealand.

The Consortium brings together the expertise to tackle this extensive, multidisciplinary study on how the Earth's crust splits apart to form a new ocean.

Our work has immediate implications for hazard assessment in the region and we will work closely with Ethiopian scientists and policy makers in the region.

The consortium has strong links with research planned in a parallel NSF grant, which is investigating deformation during rifting using GPS, seismicity and geodynamical modelling. In addition, the consortium is working with the British Geological Survey who are conducting geological mapping of the Afar region.