Aluto (also known as Alutu) () is a dormant

stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and per ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

, located in the

Ethiopian Rift Valley The Great Rift Valley of Ethiopia, (or Main Ethiopian Rift or Ethiopian Rift Valley) is a branch of the East African Rift that runs through Ethiopia in a southwest direction from the Afar Triple Junction. In the past, it was seen as part of a "Gr ...

in southern

Oromia Oromia (Amharic: ) ( om, Oromiyaa) is a regional state in Ethiopia and the homeland of the Oromo people. The capital of Oromia is Addis Ababa. It is bordered by the Somali Region to the east; the Amhara Region, the Afar Region and the Benish ...

region between

Lake Langano Lake Langano ( Oromo: ''Hora Langaanoo'', Amharic: ላንጋኖ ሐይቅ) is a lake in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia, exactly 200 kilometers by road south of the capital, Addis Ababa, on the border between the East Shewa Zone and Arsi Zones. It i ...

and

Lake Ziway Hora-Dambal also known as Lake Zway or Dambal ( Oromo: ''Hora Dambal'', Amharic: ዟይ ሐይቅ) is one of the freshwater Rift Valley lakes of Ethiopia. It is located about 100 miles south of Addis Ababa, on the border between the Oromia and S ...

. It is the site of the Aluto–Langano Geothermal Power Station.

Geology

It features numerous vents along E-W and NNW-SSE trending fissures which converge at the coordinates of the volcano center, which is the center of a hypothesized caldera surrounded by rims, visible especially in the south and west. The largest vent is ''1 km × 0.5 km'' in size just SE of the volcano center and along the SE rim of the volcano. The volcano covers a surface area of appr. 25 km². The silicic volcano center has an eruption history of more than 500,000 years, the last eruption was around 2400 years ago. Eruptions from Aluto may have influenced the dispersal of hominin populations in East Africa. Strong fumarolic activity continues throughout today. The volcano is permanently inflating and deflating with the strongest movements at the center of the hypothesized caldera, indicating some activity around 5 km below the volcano. Close to the center of the hypothetical caldera is the site of the high-temperature Aluto–Langano geothermal field with temperatures between 300 and 400 °C at depths below 1,200 meters. This geothermal field covers an area of about 8 km². The field is also the site of the Aluto–Langano Geothermal Power Station, a pilot power plant to explore

geothermal energy Geothermal energy is the thermal energy in the Earth's crust which originates from the formation of the planet and from radioactive decay of materials in currently uncertain but possibly roughly equal proportions. The high temperature and pres ...

in Ethiopia.

References

External links

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Alutu volcano
Mountains of Ethiopia Stratovolcanoes of Ethiopia Calderas of Ethiopia Pleistocene stratovolcanoes Holocene stratovolcanoes {{Oromia-geo-stub

Geology

See also

References

External links