Horn of Africa - NEW Rift or Mountain from Nabro through Shibiris

Recently we had the long dormant Nabro volcano erupting.

Over this past few weeks there has been an increase in earthquake activity along the Gulf of Aden, Red sea and off course Eritrea/Djibouti. None were large; but this is not a subduction zone. Locations like this is very unlikley to have earthquakes bigger than 6.5 in this area.

Now we also have the band new volcano erupting in what was only a normal mountain until yesterday - See Volcano Watch.

Someone asked me to have a look at a suspisious 'cloud' in the center of Somaliland near Daarburuq; (Between Hargeisa and Berbera) I did notice there is something going on there but will need to wait for more sat updates before we can expand.

While looking at various satelite images and comparing to Google Earth I discovered a potentially interesting image. This seems to run from Eritrea (Nabro) right along the coast to the tip of the Horn of Africa. Truely interesting.

Is this a complete new rift?
OR
Is it a new mountian forming region rather than rift - from magma flows up through the crust of Earth!

To really see this discovery you will need to open Google Earth, look at the Horn of Africa.Somalialand and Eritrea from an eye height of about 1,100 meters.

Potentially new mountain forming in Africa from Lava upheavels ? ? ?

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/75d92a44784f.jpg[/atsimg]

Here is an update MODIS SAT image of the Surud mountian range in North East Somaliland showing
now two places of eruption. (West at Shimbiris) and Eastern end near 'plato'

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/d1c716d8acc4.jpg[/atsimg]

This is a photo of the Surud mountain range near Shumbiris; now to be Shimbiris Volcano
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/c5d992df17bb.jpg[/atsimg]

Sory I did not notice on latest SAT image earlier. Only now came to relize there is a lot much more.
The dark cyan colour is ash, lighter clouds are steam; probbaly water form the Gulf of Aden that has some sort of deep access to the magma. This area has lots of caves, some even ancient river / water pipes.

Now it seems the whole thing is cracking. Betweent he second and third ash clouds are some smaller clouds, can not clearly see if there are ash also. Might nust be steam vents. considering this whole area for few hundred km around is all clear sky when this MODIS SAT images were taken; I would be safe in stating all these clouds are steam and ash vents oepning up here.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/6242459e82f9.jpg[/atsimg]

I am anxiously waiting for new SAT images; in the mean time;

Reviewing my earthquake plot map for this region; compared to the MODIS Aqua (Clouds) map I posted above; I saw something else. Hey, this is just observations and probbaly way out there. Will maybe just something good for a coffee table talk . . .

Along the RED line you will see cloud formations; all along that mountain range and over the central planes near Hargeisa. The BLUE line runs from a bit North of NABRO towards Djibouti. Along this blue line we had lots of small earthqaukes; including the swarm related to Nabro. Of those a few 3.5+ were further South exactly along this breaking line

I don't speak the words here, you can imagine yourself.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/51c7282142d1.jpg[/atsimg]

THIS on eis going to kill me! Luckily i do not care for peer reviews!

Take this as the absolute new fact.

The Eastern Africa Ethiopian/Eritrea RIFT valey is NOT a Rift Valley after all.
The whole Southern Eritrea/Djibouti area was not before; as in it did not exist when Africa and Arabia was one.
When Arabia split off from Africa there was just a huge massive hole; probbaly exposed magma. It is also possible that this might have been a massive volcano that actually caused the split. Time to take your Google Earth out and have a personal look.

Based on this image below: Cut Africa on the red line, throw the yellow highlight section away - and Africa/Arabia is a perfect fit. All of that which is in the yeallow area is purely later upheavel of magma material that formed a crust on top of it. This also explains the fact that much of this area is in fact below sea level. The best part of it all? This was not Billions of years ago! If you take a varfull closeup look at the coast lines they still fit perfect - not too much erorion to account for many millions of years.

NOW this is a great possible insight; it changes the whole perspective on what might and is happening in this region!

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8db420b4325f.jpg[/atsimg]

Fascinating conclusion Aromaz, and to a layman like me - highly plausible also.

Please don't keep us in suspense ... if this isn't a rift valley then what is happening exactly in your opinion?

Also, best guess when did the break off happen between Arabia and Africa?

One more thing which supports your theory is the cluster of volcanoes in the Yemen and San'aa areas and along the coast ...could they all still be linked given the low land levels near Djibouti? and if so could some sort of shallow undersea chain reaction be possible ? I'm basing that on the Nabro - Shambiris possible 'chain' effect ?

Originally posted by slidingdoor
Fascinating conclusion Aromaz, and to a layman like me - highly plausible also.

Please don't keep us in suspense ... if this isn't a rift valley then what is happening exactly in your opinion?

Also, best guess when did the break off happen between Arabia and Africa?

One more thing which supports your theory is the cluster of volcanoes in the Yemen and San'aa areas and along the coast ...could they all still be linked given the low land levels near Djibouti? and if so could some sort of shallow undersea chain reaction be possible ?

I'm basing that on the Nabro - Shambiris possible 'chain' effect ?

T.W.I.S.T
It is a re-building of land mass;
Best example I can describe it with:
Welder trying to weld two pieces of steel together, too hot or too slow - he burn big hole. Now he has to fill that hole up, tack by tack,

When Africa and Saudi broke apart, there was a magma lake in that position - probably under sea water.
Magma forms a hard layer, pressure builds up - volcano erupt and more magma to surface. This went on for many thousands of years; Eventually the magma reaches to surface and become dry land - but the volcanic activity is still ongoing today.

Fantastic post OP One thing ,how does a mountain become a Volcano I have never heard of that happening before. Surely it must have been a dormant volcano all along.

Good post, thanks for the photos and info ect.
I spent 2 years in Djibouti back in the 80s. Its a total volcanic waste land, I think they filmed parts of the `planet of the apes` there, the bit where its the forbidden territorys or bad lands. I always thought that it was at the end of the rift valley. So thanks for explaining that part. You can actually find diamonds lying about on the ground there. Although I never found any

Originally posted by tarifa37
Fantastic post OP One thing ,how does a mountain become a Volcano I have never heard of that happening before. Surely it must have been a dormant volcano all along.

A volcano can erupt at any place; even within a mountain range. Only issue needed is a weakening in the Earth crust and possible access points to surface like crack, tunnel, pipe or cave. In this particular case I suspect the whole earth has formed a crack, this Shimbiris is just on one edge of that crack.

If you look at the latest image above; 5 posts back; there is a Black crack/line about 250 km long. You can also see this on Google Earth. That is the mountian range, but all along it seems there is a long crack on the ridge.

Originally posted by Aromaz


Based on this image below: Cut Africa on the red line, throw the yellow highlight section away - and Africa/Arabia is a perfect fit. All of that which is in the yeallow area is purely later upheavel of magma material that formed a crust on top of it. This also explains the fact that much of this area is in fact below sea level. The best part of it all? This was not Billions of years ago! If you take a varfull closeup look at the coast lines they still fit perfect - not too much erorion to account for many millions of years.

NOW this is a great possible insight; it changes the whole perspective on what might and is happening in this region!

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8db420b4325f.jpg[/atsimg]

Interesting idea, shouldn't that be relatively easy to prove/disprove through geology though? I mean, do the rocks in those regions match up?

I confess I simply do not know enough about it.

So, in time if there were enough magma continuing to erupt and solidify to form new land mass could we expect to see that part of Africa actually join the Arabian peninsula ?

There is a tiny strait where the distance between Africa and Yemen looks minute - I'm guessing 45 km across ?

reply to post by illuminnaughty


Thank you for adding!

Yes, I went for those diamonds; until I got a few kg of packets of them. They are not really diamonds but a particular form of quarts crystal; look like diamonds. I doubt there will be diamonds in that region - never found any on all my explorations around there.

Here is a picture of that particular 'Diamond' correctly known as Double Ended Quartz Crystal or sometimes called "Herkimer diamond". To this day people there in East Africa keep believing it is diamonds. Sizes generally vary from micro mm to a few centimeters.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/93468dd15c51.jpg[/atsimg]

reply to post by Painterz


Absolute proof would need geological sampling on ground; but we know it was once a single land mass without the Red Sea. It is only the delta that formed from magma that was known but not fully explained. Previously it was thought to be form soil erotion coming down the rift fro Ethiopia high lands.

Now I disagree; it is magma formation her eon the spot; building a new land durface.

This realization today might actually mean that locations Djibouti/Eritrea might be much younger than previously thought. Maybe even less than 100,000 years.

reply to post by Aromaz


Yes I met some German guys out there who were looking for diamonds They said that they were industrail diamonds? In my wild youth, I was a soldier and toured out in Djibouti. So you have also covered that area. Its one of the hottest places I have ever been to. The sahara was nothing compared to East Africa. It was an excelent experience for me and one of the most unique places, that I had ever seen or been to. I covered east, west, central and north Africa. . I spent four and half years doing that. Did you ever visit lake Assal? Were the ground opened up under a lake? Its like some thing from the moon. Towers of baked mud with sulfur fumes coming from them.

reply to post by slidingdoor


Yes, you are right.

The minimum distance between Djibouti and Yemen is only 20 km and on average 150 meter deep.
Further to the North where you get the volcanic islands of Hanish and Zukur it is about 100 km between the shores, but on average less than 30 meters deep.

Still it would take a heck of a lot of lava to close the straits to the Red Sea.

If you look on the land side from the southern part of Eritrea, where we have the NABRO volcano - the land surface is often as much as -150 meters; UNDER sea level. Depression.

Originally posted by illuminnaughty
reply to post by Aromaz

 

Yes I met some German guys out there who were looking for diamonds

They said that they were industrail diamonds? In my wild youth, I was a soldier and toured out in Djibouti. So you have also covered that area. Its one of the hottest places I have ever been to. The sahara was nothing compared to East Africa. It was an excelent experience for me and one of the most unique places, that I had ever seen or been to. I covered east, west, central and north Africa. . I spent four and half years doing that. Did you ever visit lake Assal? Were the ground opened up under a lake? Its like some thing from the moon. Towers of baked mud with sulfur fumes coming from them.

... and razor sharp salt crystals that cut your feet like nothing.

Yes, it is hot; but I have been one place that was a little bit worse: Jaipur and Udapur areas in India; during May month. You needed a water bottle and wet cloth to breath air else it cooks your throat. That time it was 54 deg Celcius, no clouds, no humidity - laundry dries in less than one hour even no wind. India see me NEVER AGAIN!

Industrial diamonds are plentyfull anywher ein the world wher eyou have volcanos.

reply to post by Aromaz


Sorry but I really don't see anything new here...

The area in question is known for a lot of seismic activity. There are three plates going right where your lines are...




geology.com...

reply to post by Chadwickus


You are right, nothing is new; everything talked about here is at least a few millenia old.

If you read this thread and compared it to your referred Geology.com you would have noticed the difference.
I am not posting a Scientific Document here; this is casual talking and sharing. I am sure when/if I do publish a paper, not so many people will be interested in that language.

Originally posted by Aromaz
While looking at various satelite images and comparing to Google Earth I discovered a potentially interesting image. This seems to run from Eritrea (Nabro) right along the coast to the tip of the Horn of Africa. Truely interesting.

Is this a complete new rift?
OR
Is it a new mountian forming region rather than rift - from magma flows up through the crust of Earth!

I have a quick question if you don't mind. When you say "new", how new are you talking? "New" can be taken as a varying range of times depending on what scale you're using, as humans operate on a scale of time that is far different than that of the Earth's land masses. Knowing this would help me to better understand the rest of the theories you put forth.

I must say, I've been scanning over google Earth around the area you refer to. Inevitably, I got drawn to the coast line, scanning for potential surf spots. This is what usually happens when I go on google Earth. (Caluula looked interesting )