VOLCAN ARDOUKÔBA

Here, between the Goubet and Lake Assal, lies an area unique in the world, a paradise for geologists and volcanologists, an open-air treatise on geomorphology. Few places in the world allow you to so easily contemplate the movements and perpetual workings of the earth's crust. In Iceland, for example, you can walk along a clearly visible fault line, especially since the eruption of Ardoukôba (opening of a 12 km-long fault). Ardoukôba lies between Ghoubbet-el-Kharab and Lake Assal, on a highly active, open-air oceanic ridge. This mushroom volcano, named Ardoukôba by Haroun Tazieff, is the planet's newest and shortest-lived volcano, erupting for just one week in November 1978. A veritable sea of shiny black lava, sometimes smooth, sometimes chaotic and tormented, flows down between Ardoukôba and Lake Assal. The whole thing is part of the magma growing beneath the earth's crust. Even Haroun Tazieff, an old hand at volcanism, was astonished by the beauty of the site.

It's possible to walk around the volcano (approx. 4 hours' walk, to be done in winter). On the road between Le Goubet and Lake Assal, after Dankalélo, take a left-hand track that climbs up the mountain (4x4 obligatory) to the "Belvedere". The track then descends to the "Carrefour du Volcan". Continue on foot to the Ardoukôba rampart, which you can walk around to the right to observe the interior of the crater.