Dangerous Explosive Activity at Erta Ale Volcano – The Devil’s Throne Room and Gateway to Hell

🔥 A sudden massive explosive eruption at Erta Ale volcano in Ethiopia.

A sudden strong explosive eruption has occurred at the summit caldera of the volcano yesterday. Dense ash plumes were seen rising about 800-1000 m above the summit and causing ash fall over the northwestern sector of the volcano.
Reports suggest that lava has returned to the northern pit crater, but what exactly caused the explosive activity is unclear.

Normally, Erta Ale with its typical fluid basaltic magmas that most often forms lava lakes in the summit crater or extensive lava flows during flank eruptions or overflows from the summit vents is not producing much explosive activity of this type. This means something very unusual is taking place. One possibility is that could be related to collapse processes due to quickly rising and falling magma levels in the upper conduits. Another one could be that rising magma got in contact with ground water, producing violent explosions (so-called phreatomagmatic activity).

In any case, the summit area should be considered a very dangerous place at the moment, not only because of the risk of being hit by ejecta or caught in hot ash flows, but also because the terrain might be undergoing re-adjustments and form new craters (i.e. the ground can collapse at unexpected places especially inside the vast caldera).

Enormous blobs deep beneath Earth's surface appear to drive giant volcanic eruptions.

Pillars of hot rock appear to connect continental-size moving blobs at the bottom of Earth's mantle to giant volcanic eruptions at its surface.