RiftVolc

RiftVolc

Project Title: Rift Volcanism: Past, Present and Future

Start Date: 01/09/2014

End Date: 31/08/2019

Project Summary:

The RiftVolc project builds on previous NERC-funded projects, including the Ethiopia Afar Geoscientific Lithospheric Experiment (EAGLE), the Afar Rift Consortium (ARC) and the Airborne Research Facility‘s (ARF) data acquisition over volcanic complexes in the Afar Depression and the Main Ethiopian Rift. 

RiftVolc will focus on the volcanoes of the Main Ethiopian Rift in central Ethiopia. The aim is to understand their past behaviour, look for subtle signs of present-day activity and assess the threat posed to the infrastructure and people on and around them. RiftVolc will involve scientists from many disciplines working together to produce an integrated view of the past, present and future of the volcanoes in this region and compare it to other parts of East Africa and volcanoes elsewhere.

Objectives:

RiftVolc focuses on volcanoes and volcanic plumbing systems in three work packages (past, present and future volcanism) to address fundamental questions, including:

  • what has driven eruptions over geological timescales?
  • what controls the active magmatic system and volcanic unrest?
  • what are the potential threats from future volcanic activity?

The team will spend several months out in Ethiopia, collecting samples, mapping the geology and deploying geophysical instruments, before returning to the lab to use analyse the data and create computer models of the results. Petrologists and geochemists will look at the lavas and ash to figure out the timing, size and style of past eruptions. Geophysicists will look for tiny earthquakes, changes in gravity, the passage of electrical currents and movements of the Earth’s surface to understand the plumbing system feeding the volcanoes today. Finally, experts in hazard assessment will model possible scenarios and create a long-range eruption forecast for Ethiopia. COMET will work with our colleagues in the University of Addis Ababa and the Geological Survey of Ethiopia to ensure our findings are appropriate communicated to the government, industry and people of Ethiopia and with international groups such as the Global Volcano Model to communicate our results to development agencies such as the UN and the World Bank.

COMET investigators:

  • Professor Andy Hooper (Primary Investigator, COMET scientist)
  • Professor Tim Wright (Co-Investigator, COMET Director)

Funder(s): Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)

Partners:

  • British Geological Survey (BGS)
  • University of Edinburgh
  • University of Bristol
  • University of Oxford
  • University of Cambridge
  • University of Southampton
  • University of Leeds
  • Addis Ababa University
  • Geological Survey of Ethiopia

For more information: https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/see-research-innovation/dir-record/research-projects/922/rift-volcanism-riftvolc-past-present-and-future