Talk:Afar Triangle

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Is Afar Depression the same place as Denakil/Danakil?[edit]

I'm wondering if the Afar Depression is the same place as Denakil/Danakil? Wikipedia does not yet have an article for the latter. Or is one place located within the other? Glad to see this article, at any rate. Thanks! -- Gyrofrog (talk) 04:34, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Yes it is. A redirect would probably in order, and a mention of the term Danakil (I see it's been done already). Zyzzy, it's great to have this article, thank you! — mark ✎ 11:24, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Name: Afar Depression or Danakil Depression[edit]

Are we sure that 'Afar Depression' is the most common name? Denakil/Danakil is a name I come across very often. — mark ✎ 12:57, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)

The maps that I've seen say "Danakil." I haven't seen "Afar Depression" as such on a map. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 16:58, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Mark, what you added on the envronment is great. Gyrofrog, the Danakil is only the northernmost part of the depression, as I understand it. Zyzzy 18:37, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)Zyzzy

I've made a redirect from Danakil Depression, so that no reader is left behind. --Wetman 18:46, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Thanks for the clarification, Zyzzy. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 19:08, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)
However, here's more. Danakil or Denakil is originally Arabic; it has been used as a name for the region but also as an ethnonym for the Afar people, who consider it derogatory and prefer to be called Afari; 'Adal' is their Amharic designation, but Adal was also the name of a historic Islamic state in that region. The region is sometimes called Afar after the people, but Denakil/Danakil is the most widely used term as far as I know. Yet another variant is 'Dankali', and I should not forget 'Afar triangle'.
Now, the weird thing is that 'Denakil' seems to be favourite as a generic name for the desert (2,650 hits vs. 708 for "danakil desert" and 175 for "afar desert"), whereas 'Afar Depression' is by far the most used term in geologic contexts (3,970 hits vs. 883 for "Danakil depression" and 661 for "Denakil depression").
I think 'Afar Depression' was a good name when we only had the geology, but now that I've added an 'Environment' section it might be better to use 'Danakil' or 'Denakil'. Gee, I don't know. — mark ✎ 19:18, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Heh. From my reading of Ethiopia, most of the ethnic groups say that the names other groups have given them is offensive, usually because that exonym means "stranger". However, almost all of the ethnic names in Ethiopia mean "stranger" in one language or another; I believe even Ge'ez does, an allusion to these faithful Christians being exiles from the Holy Land. The only exonym that I would agree could be considered offensive is "Galla" for Oromo, who are mostly Moslem because of a folk etymology for Galla (Kal la, pronounced Gal la, "he said no") that implies that they refused Mohammed's offer to convert to Islam. The other cases, IMNSHO, appear to be attempts to guilt others to using their preferred names over what they have been called until recently (e.g., "Beta Israel", or "Church of Israel", for Falasha). Sorry for the rant. -- llywrch 20:07, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Right, even a term in such wide use as habesha was originally derogatory, if I'm not mistaken (some take offense with this term today, though for different reasons [1]). -- Gyrofrog (talk) 20:57, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)
And we can add Dorobo to the list of really derogative terms, but what do you guys think of the name of this article? (I'm sorry - I started talking about derogatory in the first place.) — mark ✎ 21:11, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Well, sorry to get off topic over a tangental detail; I guess someone decided to teach me a lesson for my rant by breaking my ISP for a couple of days. Anyway, I do want to point out that this article has shaped up quite nicely over the last few days, not in the least due to the photos Zyzzy has contributed. -- llywrch 05:14, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Thanks. You'll note that the location of Danakil is shown. Really the geologic province should be caled Afar-Danakil but no one refers to it like that. Zyzzy 12:30, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)Zyzzy

Afar Depression / Afar Triangle / Danakil Desert / Danakil Depression[edit]

There are four article's dealing with the approximate region (Afar Depression, Afar Triple Junction, Lake Asal and Danakil Desert). Distinction should be made between the articles. Geologically the Afar Triple Junction is part of the African Rift Valley. It is a tectonical event that has shaped the overlying region discussed in this article. It created two apparent fractures: Lake Asal and the 'Danakil Desert' both below sealevel. Both of these fractures are called 'depressions' in geology as the lie lower than the surrounding terrain.

This article contains a lot geologic information that belongs in the Triple Junction article but no link to it. It also contains info about the two main fractures/depressions in the area but does not make the distinction noted above. The Danakil Desert article actually contains info about the depression and should be renamed. It also is not more than a stub and can easily be expanded. Furthermore this article is now named 'depression' though technically correct it is confusing with the areas that are below sealevel in this region. The name Afar Triangle is more distinctive and does not insinuate that the article deals mainly with a geological event.

I would like to propose to:

  • Move (rename) Afar Depression >to> Afar Triangle
  • Move (rename) Danakil Desert >to> Danakil Depression
  • Transfer geologic information from Afar Depression >to> Afar Triple Junction
  • Shorten geology entry in Afar Depression and add link to Junction article
  • Add above distinction to all related articles and add links
  • Expand Danakil Desert article

The naming discussion can than be settled for each individual article without the hinderance of different definitions.

Comments on this are most welcome. If we can reach a consensus this would (IMHO) be a good way to proceed. AlwaysUnite18:24, 27 August 2011 (UTC)

Recent Developments[edit]

There have been some really interesting geological developments in this region since this article was last edited. Someone should include the new info. I will put it on my list of things to do, but it will probably be a while before I can get to it. Here are some sources:

Involves recent major earthquakes, rapid expansion of fissures, accelerated sinking rates, and increased volcanic activity. --WilliamThweatt 01:32, 16 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The article cited above is not available anymore, but I just found this on BBC: Africa 'witnessing birth of a new ocean' http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10415877.stm
I hope someone can incorporate the new information. I'm not a geologist and I don't feel confident enough to write it myself. --Dia^ (talk) 16:56, 28 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Importance rating[edit]

I've moved the importance of this article from "Mid" (which was Yom's opinion) to "High" for these reasons:

  • Geologic importance of the region (e.g., it is where the African continent can be seen in creation)
  • Familiarity (which is higher under its other name "Danakil Depression")
  • Balance -- I rated Ethiopian highlands as a "High" in importance. Both are equally important features of Ethiopia's geography.

Comments? -- llywrch 20:15, 23 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Three year later I agree with you. --Dia^ (talk) 16:54, 28 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Even later, so do I. Macdonald-ross (talk) 12:02, 14 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Record temperatures[edit]

The highest shaded air temperature in the Afar depression was during a heatburst phenomenia and was an incredible 96.8 °C. A heatburst can rise the actual air temperature by 50 °C in extreme events.

I'm not sure if the above poster is adding information or disputing, but heatbursts are associated with thunderstorms, and this is a desert.
Further on both of the temperature claims in the intro, though, the Libya temperature record is a well-established world record. I also have problems with this source being used to make these claims.
First, this NASA source is gimmmicky. You could simply pave an area with blacktop or put it next to an industrial area or a solar collector to get an even higher temperature.
Second, the NASA source seems to mention these few places on Earth of examples of high temperatures during a snapshot of time, and not a representative sample. So, it is temporally inaccurate.
Third, the global map of surface temperatures looks very rough with a pixel size of 250 m. Unless NASA has some kind of 1 m resolution here that they aren't sharing with us, I'd say their source is spatially imprecise and probably inaccurate too.
Fourth, it's not even a direct measurement on earth, where we can make more accurate measurements of temperature in specific places.
Fifth, does it really make any sense to say (or does it have any meaning) that, for example, west-central Manitoba and central Saskatchewan are hotter than basically all of the Southeastern U.S.? It looks like an area directly to the west of Lake Manitoba is showing about 50 C (122 F). This is near The Pas, Manitoba. The maximum temperature during the summers of 2003-2005 was 33 C (91 F). The average high temperature for all nine summer months in these three years was only 21 C (70 F).987654321
And this is at 54 N latitude, with a fairly weak sun angle. Now look at Shreveport, LA. The NASA map shows a temperature of maybe 40 C (104 F); though it's hard to tell the exact temperature, it is clearly a darker color than the are to the west of Lake Winnipegosis. On August 22, 2005, the AIR temperature reached a maximum of 40 C (104 F). I guarantee you that there was a parking lot or a patch of concrete in the city that day which was much hotter than 40 C if the air temperature was 40 C. But the NASA satellite would've only measured the temperature of the tops of pine trees in the area and not the "ground temperature".
Therefore, I've removed both statements. Ufwuct (talk) 18:53, 16 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Here are the removed statements:
Temperatures reached up to an all-time high of 64.4°C (148.0°F) in the 1930's [1]. The area is one of the hottest places on earth, comparable with the Dasht-e Lut desert in Iran [2][3]
Ufwuct (talk) 18:53, 16 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Sea of Afar[edit]

As this article has been deleted and redirects here I have added a couple of lines on this.SmokeyTheCat 09:10, 14 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

i can't seem to find any sources for this supposed flooding 8mya [aside from Morgan's aqautic ape hypothesis...] Do we have any geological support for this event? 207.210.35.135 07:14, 31 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I have added a link. It's Elaine Morgan once more. SmokeyTheCat 09:48, 1 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I found the original paper morgan referenced: Barberi, F., Borsi, S., Ferarra, G., Marinelli, G., Santacroce, R., Tazieff, H., Varet, J., 1972. Evolution of the Danakil Depression (Afar, Ethiopia) In light of radiometric age determinations. Journal Geology 80 720-729. It Doesn't appear to exist on the internet though, and since I'm inexperienced with wiki editing i'll let someone else put it up. 207.210.35.135 21:37, 2 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Climate[edit]

I think there should be a section of this page about the climate of the Danakil Depression. It is a very important aspect of it, and I realised while doing a geography paper that there was not even a link to a page which did have information about the climate. The climate is especially important because "depression" is technically, in this case, a term referring to pressure and hence to climate.EthanJosephS (talk) 21:42, 7 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

potential resource[edit]

capitalisation of titles[edit]

I wonder why we capitalise Afar Triangle. Afar Depression, Danakil Depression (etc) when the second word is merely an adjectival noun? As far as I can see, the first word is an official geographical term, but the second just modifies the first. Macdonald-ross (talk) 12:35, 14 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

References listed in discussions[edit]

  1. ^ Christopher C. Burt, Extreme Weather: A Guide and Record Book, W.W. Norton (2004), ISBN 0-393-32658-6
  2. ^ "The Hottest Spot on Earth", Earth Observatory NASA.
  3. ^ Mildrexler, D.J., Zhao, M., and Running, S.W. (2006, October 26). "Where are the hottest spots on Earth?", EOS, 87 (43), 461–467.

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