Danakil: World's Hottest And Most Inhospitable Place

14°14'30.81"N 40°17'59.50"E

(from Wikimedia Commons) 

   Hostile. Fatal. Deadly. Three perfect adjectives for describing the environment of the Danakil Depression, Ethiopia. Considered by many an extraterrestrial zone, it is one of the world's hottest and most acidic places, making life impossible for almost any organism. Even so, scientists have found out that this unique ecosystem could be of big help for science in the future.

   At a start, let us have a little insight of the wonder. So, Danakil is one of the lowest geographical depressions in the world and is located mainly in northern Ethiopia, but has parts that reach out to Eritrea and Djibouti as well. It was formed with the clash of the Arabian, Nubian and Somalian tectonic plates many millions of years ago, and nowadays it has gained tectonic activity again. I mention this because this depression is one of the main faults where the Horn of Africa is creating a breakthrough which will lead to its separation and the possible creation of a new ocean.

   But let's focus on the present where it is literally hell as the conditions are probably more extreme than any other place in the world reaching temperatures of 50ºC (122º F) in summer. It is basically made up of volcanoes, salt lakes and plenty of little toxic salty lagoons colored green and yellow. By the way, the one responsible for the coloration of these ponds is the saltwater which gets to Danakil through the earth and when it mixes with the minerals, it creates these colors. Green means it is mixed up with copper, while sulfur is the mineral for the yellow ponds.

Salt blocks are transported in camels (from Wikimedia Commons )

    But even in these harsh circumstances, humankind managed a way to stick its nose in it. And actually, there is even an Afar village there which lives off salt production. Additionally, it offers guided tours throughout the Danakil depression (yet, you have to go accompanied by armed soldiers as there are border tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea who aren't precisely friends). The highlights of Danakil you can experience are two salt lakes (Karum and Afdera) and the Erta Ale volcano. This one is one of the few volcanoes with an active lava lake on Earth, which creates the impression of a miniature sun.

Lava lake at Erta Ale volcano (from Wikimedia Commons) 

   Apart from that human settlement, there aren't any other forms of life... or that's what we thought. Because in 2013, a whole bunch of scientists noticed microbes living inside those hot springs. And after more research, they realized that Danakil could make a big step easier for science (Learn more about this project). But how?, Well Danakil has existed for many millennia (that's something we know for sure as here was where archaeologists found the skeleton of "Lucy", the oldest remains of a human ancestor we keep), therefore, geologists and scientists have pointed out that this could be a possible example of what the Earth's surface looked like millions of years ago; and at the same time it helps us understand the future, because it contains many similar features to Mars. Maybe after all, Danakil isn't such a bad thing and is just situated in the wrong time.

Sources and Picture Credits :

Sources: Brilliant Ethiopia, BBC, Europlanet, Jack & Jill Travel

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Picture 1: Wikimedia user Sharanbhurke

Picture 2 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:LeFnake 

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported (Learn more) 

Picture 3: Hervé Sthioul