The biggest and most spectacular blister caves in the world are found in the Fentale–Metehara area, in the Main Ethiopian Rift, where we inventoried 639 blisters and blister caves in an area of 80 sq. km straddling between the southern foot of Fentale volcano and the northern shore of Lake Beseka. The blisters were formed by a unique geological process involving up-doming of fluid-rich pyroclastic flows due to pressure of gases entrapped in the progressing flow, and subsequent breaching of some of the hollow domes. These unique geological heritages have been threatened, in some cases already destroyed, by various man-made and natural factors such as the unprecedented expansion of Lake Beseka, extensive infrastructure development (roads, railways, settlements and urbanization, and large-scale irrigation schemes), and younger fissural lava flows. In order to systematically determine the degree of threat quantitatively and qualitatively and evaluate the probability of destruction of any of the blisters and blister caves, we applied GIS-based frequency ratio model and non-hierarchical cluster analysis techniques and produced a susceptibility map of the area. The susceptibility map, validated using the degree of fitness technique, indicates that most of the blister field falls within very high to high susceptibility of destruction, implying that the destruction of most of these spectacular features is imminent particularly due to expansion of Lake Beseka and the Metehara town. This calls for concerted effort by the local authorities to devise mechanisms to protect the threatened blisters and blister caves along with mitigating the impacts of the expanding Lake Beseka. The susceptibility map will be helpful to guide and prioritize conservation efforts.

在埃塞俄比亚主裂谷的Fentale–Metehara地区发现了世界上最大，最壮观的水疱洞，我们在Fentale火山南麓和埃塞俄比亚火山之间的80平方公里区域内盘查了639个水泡和水疱洞。贝塞卡湖北岸。水泡是由独特的地质过程形成的，该过程涉及由于流体不断积聚的气体压力而使富含流体的火山碎屑流上升，并随后破坏了某些空心穹顶。这些独特的地质遗产已经受到各种人为和自然因素的威胁，在某些情况下已经被破坏，例如贝塞卡湖的空前扩张，广泛的基础设施建设（道路，铁路，居民点和城市化以及大规模的灌溉计划） ，年轻的裂隙熔岩流。为了系统地定量和定性确定威胁程度并评估任何水泡和水泡洞的破坏可能性，我们应用了基于GIS的频率比模型和非分层聚类分析技术，并绘制了该区域的敏感性图。使用适合度技术进行验证的磁化率图表明，大多数水泡场都处于极高到极高的破坏敏感性内，这意味着这些壮观特征中的大多数即将被破坏，特别是由于贝塞卡湖和贝塞卡湖的扩张。流星原镇。这就要求地方当局齐心协力，设计各种机制来保护受威胁的水泡和水疱，同时减轻不断扩大的贝塞卡湖的影响。