Of all the areas with geysers
in the world, the most famous are the Yellowstone , Iceland, New Zealand , Kamchatka or Chile.
Location of geysers in
the world - Doc. johnston archives 2010
The Wondermondo site recently gathered informations on other lesser-known located in the East-African great rift and having active or extinct geysers :
Ethiopia, Kenya , Uganda.
Location geysers on the
East African Rift - doc. Wondermondo / Google
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- true geysers |
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- perpetual spouters |
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- cold water geysers |
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- extinct geysers |
In Ethiopia, going
from south to north, there are two off geysers fields around Lake Abaya and north of Lake Langano . More to the N- NE, in the Afar
triangle, two active geyser fields are known : the Allalobed geysers and Dallol geysers and salt sources.
North
of Lake Abaya , the hot springs Chokore (or Chakoware ) had until 1979, active geysers , the last of them amounted to more than 1,8 meter.
Today,
still a number of very hot springs , the temperature reached 96°C , and a geyserite platform housing cones of ancient geysers.
The Abaya lake seen from Arba Minch - Photo Bernard Gagnon
North of Lake Langano , a deep bay hosts an island, with different names : Edo Laki , O'A , or just " island of geysers
."
A large
geyser, now defunct , was born in 1906, after an earthquake and remained active for several decades, rising to 25-30 m. twice per minute.
Become less active over time, it rose more than 1 meter every half hour in
1926. In 1965, the site of the geyser is transformed
into a two-meter diameter basin, the level varies of 5 to 10 cm. every 10 minutes. In 1970 , only remains a hot spring, with alkaline water (pH 8.36 ) at 96°C.
The Allalobed geysers, " the waters of Allah " are a set of steam vents , small craters of hot mud exhaling gas, deep warm waters basins of various colors,
dark green, blue or yellow, pulsatile and can boil intensely.
Ethiopia - Allalobed - photo © Carole & Frederic Hardy 2009
Ethiopia - Allalobed - photo © Carole &
Frederic Hardy 2009
Ethiopia - Allalobed - photo © Carole & Frederic Hardy 2009
Ethiopia - Allalobed - Hot spring gushing - Photo Dancalia
A basin called Allalobeda spouter often
rises to 6 meters, occasionally up to 30 meters high. Its waters have a surface temperature of 97°C. Another source has a geyser amount to 30
cm. .
These hot
springs form agglomerated deposits housing fossilized remains of plants and insects. The cooler is used by the Afars , who do their laundry .
To follow: the geysers of Ethiopia - the site of Dallol .
Sources :
- Wondermondo - geysers of Africa - link
- GOSA - Geyser Observation and Study Association - link
- Johnston's archives - geysers ressources - link