Surrounding the arid land, the depression is shadowed by two valcones, with Mount Erta Ale being active since the 1960s, still spewing out magma and boasting a crater lake of molten lava.

For three days a cloud of billowing ash dimmed the sun as the region's largest volcano, Erta Ale—"smoking mountain ... and a fiery lake of lava. The 2005 quakes and subsequent rattlings are ...