Dallol
Dallol is a volcanic explosion crater (or maar) in the Danakil Depression or Afar depression in the Afar region in the north-east Ethiopia. The place around this crater is also called Dallol depression and it’s one of the lowest places of the earth, reaching the 48 meters below sea level. Near there are the salt mines 122 meters below sea level and the lake Asale which reaches the155 meters below sea level.
Dallol crater was formed during a phreatic eruption in 1926, and numerous other similar craters dot the salt flats nearby.
The term Dallol was coined by the Afar people and means dissolution or disintegration describing a landscape made up of green acid ponds (pH-values less than 1) iron oxide, sulfur and salt desert plains. The area resembles the hot springs areas of Yellowstone Park but appears to be more wide-stretching (I’ve never been there – it’s what wikipedia says…).
Dallol and Danakil desert are of the hottest places year-round anywhere on Earth (comparable with the Dasht-e Lut desert in Iran).
Temperatures reached up to an all-time high of 64.4°C (148.0°F) in the 1930's.
The climate varies from around 25 °C (77 °F) during the rainy season (September–March) to 48 °C (118 °F) during the dry season (March–September). Only the Awash River flows into the depression, where it ends in a chain of lakes that increase in salinity.
There are no roads. Dallol is also one of the most remote places on Earth.
The only regular transport service is provided by camel caravans which travel to the area to collect salt or by 4x4 in the salt plains…
The Afar Depression (also called the Danakil Depression or the Afar Triangle) is a geological depression near the Horn of Africa (in the Great Rift Valley which is a continuous geological trench of approximately 6,000 kilometres that runs from northern Syria in Southwest Asia to central Mozambique in south-east Africa ).The Afar Depression overlaps Eritrea, the Afar Region of Ethiopia and Djibouti.
Afar is also very well known as one of the cradles of hominids, containing the Middle Awash, site of many fossil hominid discoveries; Gona, site of the world's oldest stone tools; and Hadar, site of Lucy, the fossilized specimen discovered in 1974 (nearly 40% complete skeleton) of Australopithecus afarensis (afarensis = AFARensis).
Lucy is estimated to have lived 3.2 million years ago. The discovery of this hominid in 1974 was significant as the skeleton shows evidence of small skull capacity akin to that of apes and of bipedal upright walk akin to that of humans, providing further evidence that bipedalism preceded increase in brain size in human evolution. In 1994, a new hominid, Ardi was found, in Afar region again, pushing back the earliest known hominid date to 4.4 million years ago !! Details of this discovery were finally published in October 2009…
Dallol
Dallol is a volcanic explosion crater (or maar) in the Danakil Depression or Afar depression in the Afar region in the north-east Ethiopia. The place around this crater is also called Dallol depression and it’s one of the lowest places of the earth, reaching the 48 meters below sea level. Near there are the salt mines 122 meters below sea level and the lake Asale which reaches the155 meters below sea level.
Dallol crater was formed during a phreatic eruption in 1926, and numerous other similar craters dot the salt flats nearby.
The term Dallol was coined by the Afar people and means dissolution or disintegration describing a landscape made up of green acid ponds (pH-values less than 1) iron oxide, sulfur and salt desert plains. The area resembles the hot springs areas of Yellowstone Park but appears to be more wide-stretching (I’ve never been there – it’s what wikipedia says…).
Dallol and Danakil desert are of the hottest places year-round anywhere on Earth (comparable with the Dasht-e Lut desert in Iran).
Temperatures reached up to an all-time high of 64.4°C (148.0°F) in the 1930's.
The climate varies from around 25 °C (77 °F) during the rainy season (September–March) to 48 °C (118 °F) during the dry season (March–September). Only the Awash River flows into the depression, where it ends in a chain of lakes that increase in salinity.
There are no roads. Dallol is also one of the most remote places on Earth.
The only regular transport service is provided by camel caravans which travel to the area to collect salt or by 4x4 in the salt plains…
The Afar Depression (also called the Danakil Depression or the Afar Triangle) is a geological depression near the Horn of Africa (in the Great Rift Valley which is a continuous geological trench of approximately 6,000 kilometres that runs from northern Syria in Southwest Asia to central Mozambique in south-east Africa ).The Afar Depression overlaps Eritrea, the Afar Region of Ethiopia and Djibouti.
Afar is also very well known as one of the cradles of hominids, containing the Middle Awash, site of many fossil hominid discoveries; Gona, site of the world's oldest stone tools; and Hadar, site of Lucy, the fossilized specimen discovered in 1974 (nearly 40% complete skeleton) of Australopithecus afarensis (afarensis = AFARensis).
Lucy is estimated to have lived 3.2 million years ago. The discovery of this hominid in 1974 was significant as the skeleton shows evidence of small skull capacity akin to that of apes and of bipedal upright walk akin to that of humans, providing further evidence that bipedalism preceded increase in brain size in human evolution. In 1994, a new hominid, Ardi was found, in Afar region again, pushing back the earliest known hominid date to 4.4 million years ago !! Details of this discovery were finally published in October 2009…