Conference header
Lalibela Colourful plates Camels in the sunset Addis Ababa Ceiling Digdiga James at Erta 'Ale Injera bread cooking Thatched huts Donkeys Afar sunset

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 11th-13th January 2012

Ararat Hotel, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

In January this year, more than 200 scientists from across the planet gathered in Addis Ababa to discuss their latest findings on the causes and impact of magmatic rifting and active volcanism in a variety of tectonic settings. The three-day meeting was held to mark the end of the 5-year Afar Rift Consortium project, a major £2.5M project funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council.

The meeting was wide in scope: the 67 oral presentations and 66 poster contributions were of extremely high quality, and covered the themes of Active Magmatic Rifting, Mid-Ocean Ridge Processes, Rifted Continental Margins, Mantle-Lithosphere Interactions and the Causes of Breakup, Natural Hazards, Rifting and Climate, and Resources from Magmatic Rifts. Keynote presentations were given by Suzanne Carbotte (Lamont), Kathy Cashman (Oregon/Bristol), Andy Cohen (Arizona), Getahun Demissie (Addis Ababa), Carolina Lithgow-Bertolloni (UCL), Gianreto Manatschal (Strasbourg) and Freysteinn Sigmundsson (Iceland).

We were particularly pleased that more than 50 Ethiopian scientists were able to attend (free of charge), and 70 PhD/MSc students joined the conference at a heavily discounted rate. The conference was fortunate to receive generous sponsorship from Stratex, IASPEI, NERC, Addis Ababa University, The Geological Survey of Ethiopia, The Ethiopian Ministry of Mines, Ethio-der travel, Ethiopian Airlines, and the British Geophysical Association. These funds enabled us to subsidise local and student participants, and to cover the full costs of 15 scientists from across Africa.

Many of the participants in the conference joined one of three field trips to some of the spectacular geological (and tourist) sites of Ethiopia, including the spectacular volcanoes and faults of the rift valley, and the rock-cut churches at Lalibela

Conference Programme is available here.

Abstract Volume (PDF) is available here.

Conference Scientific Committee Members
Conference Local Organizing Committee Members

Conference sponsors

The generous sponsorship of the conference by the following companies has allowed us to provide some support for scientists from less-economically developed countries within Africa.

IASPEI

 

For further information please email: addis2012@see.leeds.ac.uk