Ethiopia lies at the heart of the East African Rift, where the Nubian and Somali plates are splitting apart and the Arabian Plate pulls away to the northeast at the Afar Triple Junction. This continental rifting thins and cracks the crust, making the country one of the most volcanically active and geologically dynamic in Africa.
The Danakil Depression hosts extraordinary sights such as Erta Ale, home to a persistent lava lake, and the vivid acidic springs of Dallol. Ethiopia's rift is also studded with volcanoes and calderas, and scientists watch it closely because it offers a rare, living glimpse of how a new ocean basin begins to form.