Afar Triple Junction
Ethiopia / Eritrea / Djibouti · continental rift · 3235.9 km of mapped active fault in 30 traces
background as of 7 November 2026.
consistent with baseline
| Window | the last 30.0 days |
|---|---|
| Earthquakes counted | 0 at M4.5 or above |
| Expected in that window | 0.15 |
What this system normally does
From 1995 to 2025 the catalogue holds 55 earthquakes of M4.5 or larger attributable to this system: about 1.83 a year. That figure is what "elevated" on this page is measured against.
The fault itself
| Mapped length | 3235.9 km |
|---|---|
| Traces | 30 |
| Tectonic setting | continental rift |
| Slip types | Normal |
| Depth attributed to it | down to 50.0 km |
| Extent | 9.44 to 17.35 latitude, 39.56 to 42.33 longitude |
Recorded history
NOAA's hazard records hold 8 significant earthquakes and one tsunami attributed to this system since 1631.
The deadliest was the 1 June 1961 magnitude 6.2 earthquake (Ethiopia: Karakore), which killed 160 people.
The strongest earthquake on record here was magnitude 6.3, on 20 August 1989 (Djibouti: Galafi, Yabaki; Ethiopia).
The most recent entry is the 11 October 2025 magnitude 5.6 earthquake (Ethiopia: Berahile), which killed one person.
Across the entries that record a death toll, 207 people died.
| Date | What | Where | Toll |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 June 1961 | magnitude 6.2 earthquake | Ethiopia: Karakore | 160 dead, damage $5 to 25 million |
| 29 March 1969 | magnitude 6.2 earthquake | Ethiopia: Sardo | 40 dead, damage under $1 million |
| 20 August 1989 | magnitude 6.3 earthquake | Djibouti: Galafi, Yabaki; Ethiopia | 6 dead, damage $1 to 5 million |
| 11 October 2025 | magnitude 5.6 earthquake | Ethiopia: Berahile | 1 dead, damage $1 to 5 million |
| 20 July 1884 | magnitude 6.2 earthquake | Eritrea: Massawa, Muncullo | damage $1 to 5 million |
| 14 August 1921 | magnitude 5.9 earthquake | Ethiopia: Mesewa (Massaua) | damage $5 to 25 million |
| 10 February 1631 | magnitude 5.7 earthquake | Ethiopia | damage $1 to 5 million |
| 24 September 2005 | magnitude 5.6 earthquake | Ethiopia: Dabbahu | damage $1 to 5 million |
| 20 July 1884 | tsunami | Offshore Massawa | damage $1 to 5 million |
A dash means NOAA recorded no number, not that nobody died. Older entries are fewer because fewer were written down, not because less happened.
Recorded history: NOAA NCEI hazard databases, public domain, retrieved 2026-10-22.
Where these numbers come from
Fault geometry, length and segment counts: GEM Global Active Faults Database (GEM GAF-DB), GEM Foundation, https://github.com/GEMScienceTools/gem-global-active-faults Licence: CC-BY-SA-4.0. Figures derived from it here are offered under the same licence. Earthquake counts, magnitudes and depths: United States Geological Survey, public domain. The activity judgement is ours, computed from those two inputs, and is not a statement by either agency.