The volcano is located along the Somali Plate.

The Nubian and Somali plates run along the Great Rift Valley.

This rift zone separates the Nubian Plate to the west from the Somali Plate to the east.

The rift is being caused by the separation of the Somali plate from the Nubian plate, apparently driven by a thermal plume.

Geologists generally refer to these incipient plates as the Nubian Plate and the Somali Plate.

The system, on the boundary between the African Plate (Nubian Plate) and the Somali Plate, has two branches, both oriented north-south.

The section of the Aswa Dislocation between the two rifts forms part of the boundary between the Somali Plate and the African Plate.

The Albertine Rift and the mountains are the result of tectonic movements that are gradually splitting the Somali Plate away from the rest of the African continent.

The Somali Plate or Somalian Plate is a tectonic plate that is being formed as the African Plate is splitting along the East African Rift.

The rift is a narrow zone in which the African Plate is in the process of splitting into two new tectonic plates, called the Somali Plate and the Nubian Plate, which are subplates or protoplates.

The Somali Plate is bounded on the west by the East African Rift, which extends south through East Africa from the triple junction in the Afar Depression, and an undersea continuation of the rift extending southward offshore.