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The Dallol Depression, also called Danakil Depression, is a desert with some areas that are more than 100 meters (328 feet) below sea level. This is special because it is one of the lowest points on earth not covered by water. There are hot yellow sulfur fields among the sparkling white salt beds. Heat isn't the only thing people feel in the Dallol Depression. Alarming earth tremors are frequently felt. There are also several active volcanoes. So just how hot is it at the Dallol Depression? Temperatures can reach as high as 145 degrees Fahrenheit (63 degrees Celsius) in the sun. |
There is nowhere else quite like it on Earth. More like hell say the very few who have made it there. It is a place where rivers die, boiling water spurts out of rocks and smoke curls up from holes in the ground. The landscape is dotted with bright yellow sulphur fields, green crystal pools and sparkling salt beds. This is the Danakil Depression, a basin in north-eastern Ethiopia, close to the Red Sea. It is one of the lowest points on earth not covered by water. Danakil is renowned for being the place with the highest average temperature on Earth. It tops 34 °C every day of the year and soars to 55 °C in the summer. Temperatures can reach as high as 63 °C in the sun. Heat isn't the only thing people feel. Alarming earth tremors are frequently felt. There are also several active volcanoes. |
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One of the amazing places in Danakil is "Mount Dallol" with its hot yellow sulfur fields among the sparkling white salt beds. It is the lowest volcanos on land in the one of the lowest elevations on earth at 14°14'23''N, 40°18'0''E and about 116 meters below sea level. The other one is Erta Ale at 13.6°°N, 40.67°E, and 613m. It is a shield volcano, which has a base diameter of 30km and is only 500m high. In its 1600×700m vast summit caldera, there are two pit craters. The larger one with 300-400m diameter in the northern part contained a lava lake in 1968 and 1973 but is now inactive. A central, but smaller pit with 140m diameter, and 60 to 90m deep now has an active lava lake 60m wide and 100m long. It is the only active fire lake with permanent lava on earth.
Besides these all, what is the mysterious secrete in the belly of Danakil Depression? The answer is: The unseen world! Life forms living in the extreme environments! The Microbes! The Extremophiles! The Nobel genes of Super Thermophiles/Thermophiles, Halophiles, Alkaliphiles, Acidophiles and others! The great economic potential !!!! |
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When you stop to think about all the extremophiles out there in the tummy of Danakil, and all the complicated reactions in those extreme conditions that are going on inside a cell that is too small for us to see, it is absolutely phenomenal.
What are Extremophiles? They are nature's pioneers, microorganisms that not only survive but thrive in the planet's harshest environments. Some live undersea in hot volcanic vents, others in sub-zero Antarctic waters. There are extremophiles in saline waters where other life forms shrivel, and those living in acid where all other organisms instantly break down. These single-celled creatures owe their hardiness to genes.
It is interesting timing that the secrets of these ancient super-survivors are beginning to be revealed at a time of socio-economic volatility when business strategists often look to the laws of nature for wisdom, searching for novel genes with novel bioproducts and applications! Danakil is a place where this wisdom is incredibly in abundant. Let us look for it! |
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One of Africa's most striking geographical features is a giant tear across the earth's surface visible even from space: the Great Rift Valley. Extending from the Middle East to Mozambique, the Rift Valley passes in a north-easterly to South-westerly direction right through Ethiopia, endowing the country with some spectacular sights range from hot, dry, and barren places to a string of beautiful lakes.
This tremendous collapse of the earth's surface occurred at the same time that the Arabia Peninsula, geologically a part of Africa, was sundered from the rest of the continent. The Denakil, or Dallol, depression, which encompasses a good portion of the eastern part of the Tigray region, is one of the earth's hottest and most inhospitable places, with many points more than 100 meters (328 feet) below sea level and noon-time temperatures soaring above 50 degree Celsius (122 degree Fahrenheit) |
| It is the site of a dry salt lake from which Ethiopians since time immemorial have obtained their amoles, or bars of salt, used both for consumption and, long ago, as a primitive sort of money. Minded by the Afar people for at least a millennium and a half, the salt is loaded on camels and taken to the highlands, where it is still in considerable demand and fetches a good price |
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