Dalla Filla

Three days ago, I received an email from Eruptions reader Gijs de Reijke who was curious about something he noticed in the daily OMI SO2 images: OMI sulfur dioxide map over Ethiopia for June 30, 2009. Now, I wasn't quite sure what to make of it other than the fact that there was an awful lot of sulfur dioxide in the vicinity of Addis Ababa, which seemed odd. If we look at a map of the active volcanoes in Ethiopia (below), a majority of the ones we might suspect if the SO2 was volcano are to the north (Erte Ale, Dallafilla), but this patch is smack-dab in the middle of the country, looking…

Sounds like we're beginning to get a better idea of what is erupting in Ethiopia. Ghezahegn Yirgu, a geologist at Addis Ababa University, reports that Dalla Filla Dalaffilla Volcano is the source of the eruption. Again, the eruption is being characterized as "lava flows" rather than an explosive eruption, which may be surprising considering the amount of volcanic gases being released (see Boris Bechnke's highly useful comment). However, some mostly effusive eruptions have released a lot of volcanic gases in the past - see Laki, Iceland in 1783 - so a preponderance of flows at Dalla Filla…

In one of the most oddly worded articles I've seen from the BBC, a lava flow from Erta Ale an unidentified volcano in the Erte Ale range in Ethiopia has erupted a significant amount of lava. The headline states "Ethiopia volcano sets lava record", which is strange on multiple counts, but mostly because I'm not familiar with any "lava records", who might keep track of them and what, exactly, this "lava record" is. In fact, they don't even mention it in the article itself. They do, however, point out that lava from this eruption has covered 300 square kilometers, which is a decent chunk of…