A Geothermal Resource for Eritrea, an Energy-Poor African Nation

Abstract

Eritrea badly needs electrical energy to power an emerging economy. Geothermal resources associated with volcanoes may be able to provide the energy needed to launch this new nation's development plans. We have undertaken a pre-drilling assessment of the geothermal potential of Alid volcanic center as a step toward realizing this possibility. Alid volcanic center is a 700-meter-tall structural dome astride the axis of a crustal spreading center (the Danakil Depression) in eastern Eritrea. This mountain has many fumaroles whose gas compositions suggest an underlying hydrothermal system of about 250?C or hotter. Many of the volcanic rocks at Alid are rhyolite, which suggests an upper crustal silicic ma,oma reservoir beneath the mountain. The growth of this magma reservoir probably produced the structural dome by arching up overlying rocks. The process of dome formation and the ongoing crustal spreading probably produced and help maintain permeability in the hydrothermal system.