Ethiopia:

Energy Poverty and Geothermal Energy Futures (Blog - Volcanic Degassing)

Interest in young volcanoes as potential sources of ‘clean energy’ provides a significant opportunity for geoscientists to try and find out a little bit more about their eruptive past, and their potential for future activity; and to work out where the hot fluids and gases that provide the geothermal prospect are stored within the crust.

At Aluto volcano, work by Will Hutchison using imagery from an aircraft survey(to identify young faults and fractures), and a ground-based survey of where (natural) carbon dioxide is seeping out of the volcano at the present day, has helped develop a cartoon ‘model’ for this volcano. 

Our current view is that Aluto volcano currently leaks quite small amounts of heat and gas to the surface; mainly along long-lived fractures and faults, some of which have origins older than the volcano itself. Inside the volcano, fluids are trapped under layers of impermeable rock – perhaps two to three kilometres below the surface – where they are heated by the warm rocks of the volcanic hearth.

Planned drilling campaigns on Aluto, and on the neighbouring volcano and geothermal prospect, Corbetti, should eventually fill in some of the gaps in our geological knowledge; and help to transform the energy futures of some of the millions of people who live along the Ethiopian Rift valley.

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