ADD-ON

About Afar Dallol Drilling - ONset of sedimentary processes in an active rift basin

The ADD-ON project (Afar Dallol Drilling) aims to explore drilling targets in the Danakil Depression (Afar, Ethiopia). The overarching scientific goal is to get insights into the detailed sedimentary facies evolution in an active rift setting paced by global environmental fluctuations and their interplay with volcano-tectonic events. Seismo-stratigraphic interpretations based on industrial seismic sections, core and borehole data evidence the presence of Pleistocene evaporite units until the depth of about 900 m below the Dallol salt pan (central Danakal Depression, northern Afar). However, to date no sub-salt sedimentary core records are available from the central part of the rift basin filled with more than 1.5 km of sediments.