Records of the volcano date to the 1600's, but a lava lake was only identified in 1960's. The Afar language calls it "smoking mountain" which indicates it has been active for a long time. The Afar region is the only place on earth where a tectonic triple junction is located above sea level (Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and African Rift Valley).

Erta Ale volcano can be considered equivalent to submarine spreading ridges. The Erta Ale Range is 95 km long and 50 km wide. Erta Ale volcano has feature similar to the Hawaiian volcanoes of Kilauea and Mauna Loa. The caldera is 1.6 km x 0.7 km in diameter and two pit craters are often filled by lava lakes.

The summit of Erta Ale is occupied by an ellipse-shaped sink elongated NNW-SSE (1600 X 700 m). Tts northern end contains two pit-craters. The sink probably resulted from three collapse-structures. The northern one corresponds to the main pit crater. The southern and central pits could either corresponds to an ancient pit, or to a simple collapse structure. The main pit-crater, 200 m deep and 350 m across, is subcircular and three storied. The smaller southern pit is 65 m wide and about 100 m deep.

credited to volcanolive and flickr: filippo_jean