Mount Dama Ali

Dama Ali is a broad 25-km-wide shield volcano that rises above the NW shore of Lake Abbe in eastern Ethiopia. Nested circular craters are located at the summit of the dominantly basaltic volcano, which also displays an older caldera rim. An arcuate chain of rhyolitic lava domes occupies the northern, western, and southern flanks. Youthful basaltic lava flows surround these domes and cover the flanks, and recent flows also cover the young sediments of the Kalo and Abhe basins. The Asmara basaltic pyroclastic cone located in the southern Kalo basin SW of the base of the volcano was considered to have had activity during the last 2,000 years (IAVCEI, 1973). It is considered the most likely source of an eruption reported to have occurred in 1631 (Gouin, 1979). Major fumarolic activity occurs in the summit crater, and abundant hot springs are found on the volcano.