29/07/2018
The Danakil Depression
The Danakil (or Dallol) Depression,is found in Mostly Afar region which straddles the Eritrean border to the east of the Tigraian Highlands, is renowned as the hottest place on earth, with an average temperature of 34–35˚C. Much of this vast and practically unpopulated region lies below sea level, dipping to a frazzled nadir of -116m at Dallol, near Lake Asale, the lowest spot of terra firma on the African continent. One of the driest and most tectonically active areas on the planet, the Danakil is an area of singular geological fascination: a strange lunar landscape studded with active volcanoes, malodorous sulphur-caked hot springs, solidified black lava flows and vast salt-encrusted basins.
The Danakil is found in Mostly Afar region effectively a southerly terrestrial extension of the rifting process that formed the Red Sea, set at the juncture of the African, Arabian and Somali tectonic plates, and its low-lying surface was once fully submerged by saline water. Relics of those distant days include lakes Asale and Afrera, both of which lie at the centre of an ancient salt-extraction industry (seismic studies indicate that the thickness of the salt at Lake Asale is around 2km) linking the somewhat restricted economy of the Danakil to the more naturally bountiful Tigraian Highlands around Mekele.
It is some measure of the Danakil’s geological activity that more than 30 active or dormant volcanoes – roughly one-quarter of the African total as listed by the Smithsonian Institute Global Volcanism Program – are shared between its Ethiopian and Eritrean components. Following a series of fault lines running in a north-to-northwesterly direction, these volcanoes are all geological infants, having formed over the past million years, and a great many took their present shape within the last 10,000 years.
Erta Ale is the most-visited volcano in the Danakil Depression
The most substantial range is the so-called Danakil Alps, also known as the Danakil Block or Danakil Horst, whose highest peak, the 2,219m Mount Nabro, lies within Eritrea some 8km northeast of Mallahle (1,875m) on the Ethiopian border. In June 2011, Mount Nabro erupted violently killing 31 people and causing major disruptions to air traffic. Other notable volcanoes include the spectacular peaks of Borale (812m) and Afrera (1,295m), both of which rise in magnificent isolation from the sunken (-103m) shoreline of Lake Afrera, and the more westerly Alayita, a vast massif that rises to 1,501m and last erupted in 1901 and 1915.
The most regularly visited volcanic range in the Danakil is Erta Ale (sometimes spelt Ertale or Irta’ale), which consists of seven active peaks extending over an area of 2,350km² between Kebit Ale (287m, on the west shore of Lake Asale) to Haile Gubbi (521m, about 20km north of Lake Afrera). Of the three peaks that top the 600m mark, most remarkable is Erta Ale itself, which is noted as being one of the most active volcanoes in Africa, having hosted a permanent lava lake for longer than 120 years, and which has been in a state of continuous eruption since at least 1967, when scientific observation commenced.
Danakil, Ethiopia - is found in Mostly Afar region Salt miners ply an ancient and gruelling trade in Ethiopia's northeastern Danakil Depression, one of the hottest and lowest places on Earth.
Danakil contains vast salt flats as well as sulphur springs and rumbling volcanoes created by the grinding of three tectonic plates. Yet this inhospitable landscape manages to support the Afar people, a Muslim group straddling the borderlands of Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti.
Each day, Afar miners chop salt from the earth under a blistering sun, then load the minerals on to camels and donkeys which march for days to market towns to the west where the mineral is sold.
Danakil salt was once so valuable people used it as currency, but each rough hewn slab fetches only four Ethiopian birr (about 20 cents) at the mine today. With such small profits for such hard labour, the ancient trade may soon give way to more lucrative pursuits.
The Danakil also holds large deposits of potash which is used in fertilisers, and numerous mining companies are lining up to begin extraction.
Railway being built from Djibouti and a new tarmacked road traversing the old salt route may soon render the traditional camel caravan obsolete. Until then, the Afar miners will continue their tough way of life, scratching a living from this desolate stretch of salt.
