Here’s what you’ll learn in this story:The East African Rift System (EARS) is one of the most impressive geologic features on the planet—not to mention one of the most volcanically active and geothermally rich. In East Africa, geothermal energy is big business, and that’s all thanks to the East African Rift System (EARS). This volcanic activity also means that eastern Africa is a geothermal hotspot. Luckily, by analyzing noble gases from the Kenyan geothermal field, scientists found that contamination was minimal. This study “provid[es] the first geochemical evidence for a common deep mantle beneath the entirety of the East African Rift System,” the authors wrote.