British Geological Survey (BGS)
type: Organization

Grant award details
type: Distribution
access URL: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects
description: Resource locator
issued: 2026-08-28T07:05:57.901187
modified: 2026-08-28T07:05:57.862840

How does the Earth's crust grow at divergent plate boundaries? A unique opportunity in Afar, Ethiopia. [ANALOGUE MODELLING SUB REPORT]
type: Dataset
keyword: Natural hazards
keyword: NERC_DDC
keyword: Tectonics
keyword: Volcanism
description: PROJECT DETAILS ONLY - NO DATA. The African continent is slowly splitting apart along the East African rift valley, a 3000 km-long series of deep basins and flanking mountain ranges. This process may eventually lead to the formation of a new ocean, but on a time scale of millions of years. In the remote Afar depression in northern Ethiopia, Earth's outermost shell, usually a relatively rigid, 150 km-thick plate, has been stretched, thinned and heated to the point of rupture, to the extent that a new ocean is about to form. Below the surface, upwelling rocks from Earth's mantle below are partially melting, rising, and cooling. Here, we have the unprecedented opportunity to witness the process of plate rupture and upwelling of molten rock (magma). Normally, this process occurs within shallow seas, or along the established seafloor spreading centres deep under the oceans; in Afar, though, we can actually walk across the region as it happens. Satellite observations of the earth show that tectonic plates move apart, on average, very slowly: usually at a few centimetres per year, or about the rate of fingernail growth. Very occasionally, however, sudden large movements occur, often with devastating consequences. In September 2005, a series of fissures opened along a 60 km section of the Afar depression, as the plate responded catastrophically to forces pulling it apart. Over about a week, the rift pulled apart by 8 metres, and dropped down by up to 1 metre. As told by local people, a series of earthquakes signalled the rise of molten rock to the surface on September 26, and ash darkened the air locally for 3 days. At the same time, satellites tracking the region showed that the surface above nearby volcanoes subsided by as much as 3 metres, as magma was injected along the fissure below the surface. The rapidity and immense length of rupture are not unexpected, but have never before been measured directly. The Afar depression is so hot and dry that almost no vegetation obs…
issued: 2025-12-31T15:07:56.379590
modified: 2026-08-28T07:05:57.855982
spatial: Location
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