Dallol, Ethiopia - The Hottest Place on Earth
Dallol, located in the Danakil Depression, northern Ethiopia, is a boiling, salt-formed world. On top of average temperatures of 94 degrees Fahrenheit, Dallol is one of the hottest places on the planet. Dallol itself is surrounded by boiling hot springs, bringing hot minerals and toxic gas bubbles to the surface. Despite making Dallol uninhabited, these geological forces have actually made the area somewhat picturesque, coloring the lowlands with rusty orange, yellow, and green salt formations.
Dallol is a dizzying riot of color created by rain and seawater from the nearby coast, heated by magma. The sea salt reacts with volcanic minerals in the magma, creating luminescent colours. In the hottest pools, sulfur, and salt react to create bright yellow chimneys. In cooler pools, copper salts blend in vivid turquoise.
The Dallol sits more than 100 meters below sea level at some of its lowest points and it is one of the lowest places on the planet. Some of the Danakil Depression’s pools boast a pH level below 1 (which in terms of acidity sits somewhere between battery and stomach acid), with thin salt crusts frequently disguising underlying pools of deadly acid. Life isn’t really a thing here, which means that Dallol is one of the most barren and desolate ecosystems in the world.
References:
