Dust over the Afar Depression, Ethiopia and Eritrea

Dust blows across the Red Sea and the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, over Eritrea and over Ethiopia. In Ethiopia, it is hemmed in and funneled southwards by the mountains bordering the Afar Region. The name of the funnel-shaped area is the Afar Depression or Afar Triangle, a geological depression that is caused by the Afar Triple Junction which is part of the Great Rift Valley. It overlaps Eritrea, Djibouti and the entire Afar Region of Ethiopia. Visible near the left edge on the image bellow, unaffected by the dust, is the green Lake Tana.

Dust blows off the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. The Horn of Africa is a peninsula in East Africa that juts hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea and lies along the southern side of the Gulf of Aden. The dust appears to originate on the Arabian Peninsula, probably in the Rub’ al Khali Desert, and blow southward. This is evident from the way the veil of dust is less thick southwest of the island of Socotra – the island partially blocks the path of the airborne dust particles as they blow in that direction.

Source: EarthSnapshots