Photo Gallery 1
Aerial photograph looking NW toward the September 26 volcanic vent. The
area of buff-coloured material is some of the volcanic ash deposited after
the volcanic eruption. Note the open fissures both to the north and south
of the vent. Additional cracks are located to the east (right). Photo
Elizabeth Baker, Royal Holloway, University of London.
Photo
looking NNW from the central part of the eastern flank of the Dabbahu
rift segment. Dabbahu volcano is ~30 km from this site. The steep scarps
were formed by many episodes of slip along dipping fault planes; some
faults show > 3 m of movement in the September-October episode (Figure
10). The faults displace basaltic lavas (dark rocks) and small pockets
of windblown ash and dust (white rocks). Photo by Cindy Ebinger, University
of Rochester, USA.
Aerial
photo of 0.5 m-wide cracks and faults that formed in September, 2005.
These cracks formed above the zone where molten rock rose into the plate,
reaching to within approximately 2 kilometres of the surface. Photo by
Julie Rowland, University of Auckland.
Volcanic
vent that opened September 26, 2006. The vent was about 500 m long. View
to the south from the north end of the vent - notice the tunnel at the
southern end. Notice the layers of ash that built up over a periods of
days around the vent. The rhyolitic rocks in the foreground were blown
out of the vent. Photo by Julie Rowland, University of Auckland.
Central
section of 60 km-long rift zone that opened south of Dabbahu volcano.
NW facing fault with > 3 m offset on eastern flank ~ 30 km south of
Dabbahu volcano. The cracks formed in older basalts and softer sedimentary
rocks and volcanic ash. Photo by Julie Rowland, University of Auckland.
Royal
Holloway PhD student Derek Keir measuring slip along an active normal
fault near the central segment. The buff-coloured region shows the 2005
fault slip. Photo by Julie Rowland, University of Auckland.
Oxford
University PhD student Juliet Biggs and Ethiopian Mapping Agency surveyor
Feleke Worku making a GPS measurement at a site between lava flows at
the centre of the Dabbahu rift. The Scarp in background is a faulted volcano.
Daytime temperatures were over 40C during the March visit. Photo by Julie
Rowland, Auckland University.
Feleke
Worku, a surveyor from the Ethiopian Mapping Agency, examines a ground
rupture created during the September rifting event. Photograph by Tim
Wright, University of Leeds.
Leeds PhD student James Hammond bringing home the camels laden with seismic and GPS gear. Photo by Tim Wright, University of Leeds.
Vehicle
transporting drinking water for field work in Afar. Photograph by Tim
Wright, January 2006.
The
town of Chifra on the western edge of the Afar region. Photograph by Tim
Wright, January 2006.
3D
view of satellite radar measurements of how the ground moved in September
2005. Over about 3 weeks, the crust on either side of the rift moved apart
by as much as 8 metres, with molten rock filling the crack between the
plates. Satellite radar data is from the European Space Agency's Envisat
satellite. Figure was prepared by Tim Wright, University of Leeds using
Google Earth.
Enhanced
Landsat Thematic Mapper image of the Dabbahu rift segment prior to the
September 2005 events. These satellite images have been enhanced to show
subtle differences in rock type invisible to the naked eye. (Bands 7,
4, 1, decorrelation stretch). Ellen Wolfenden, Royal Holloway, University
of London.
Photo
looking N of the explosive vent that opened on September 26 after two
days of nearly continuous seismic activity. To the right of the ~60 m-wide
vent lies a 200 m-wide, 4 km-long zone of open fissures and normal faults
that may mark the subsurface location of the dyke. The fault zone continues
to the top of the photo to the right of the small rhyolite centre. Photo
Elizabeth Baker, Royal Holloway, University of London.
Topographic
relief of the 60 km-long Dabbahu rift segment within the Afar Depression.
Inset shows directions of plate divergence between the stable African
(Nubian), Arabian, and Somalian plates. Cynthia Ebinger, University of
Rochester, USA.
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