Danakil Depression: Why is this place called the Gateway to Hell?
What comes to your mind when you hear about Ethiopia? It is the birthplace of coffee. The country also runs on its own 13-month yearly calendar and follows its own time, with the day clock starting with the sunrise and ending in the sunset and vice versa for the night clock. Okay, what else? Oh, it is home to the lowest and hottest place on Earth. The name? Danakil Depression.
Meet Danakil Depression: The hottest and lowest place on Earth
Lying in the north-eastern Ethiopia near the Afar Region, the Danakil Depression is a plainland with the dimensions 200km by 50km. It is a geological crater approximately 125 metres below the sea level and was formed by the divergence of not one but three tectonic plates in the Horn of Africa (a peninsula in East Africa). It has the Ethiopian Plateau in the west and Danakil Alps in the east, adjacent to the Red Sea.
In terms of annual average temperatures of 55 degrees Celsius, Danakil Depression can be regarded as the hottest place on the face of the Earth. No wonder, this place is nicknamed as the Gateway to Hell. Besides, the depression is also the lowest place on the planet lying at a depth on 100 metres below the sea level. Interestingly, the area is also one of the driest places and almost goes without rain for most of the years.
Formation of Danakil Depression
If you are a geography buff, you might be aware that long before the Red Sea and the Suez Canal divided the two continents, Africa and Asia were connected. However, when they did part, it wasn’t without consequence. Guess what it led to? The formation of Danakil Depression. In fact, when Asia and Africa moved apart, there was a lot of complex geological movements such as volcanic activity (flow of lava as well as sedimentary rocks such as sandstone, limestone and basalt), rifting, erosion, inundation by the sea, and of course moving of three tectonic plates at the junction of which formed the Danakil Depression. It is better known as the Triple Junction.
Considering so many geological phenomena were involved at once, starting with formation of a sea, a depression, tectonics as well as volcanism, the International Union of Geological Sciences enlisted Danakil Depression as top 10 of the ‘100 geological heritage sites’ in the world in October 2022.
What makes Danakil Depression so interesting?
At present, the Danakil Depression lies amidst two active volcanoes in the vicinity, namely, Mount Ayelu in the south-western end and Erta Ale in the north-eastern side. The latter is also one of the few existing lava lakes of the world, better known as Lake Afrera.
Apart from these, Danakil Depression also harbours a hot sulphur, chlorine and acid spring called the Dallol Hydrothermal System. Unsuitable for humans to traverse, Dallol is constantly erupting and is known for housing extremophilic microbes, or the microorganisms that can survive in extreme environments such as the archae bacteria. Currently, scientists are using this region to understand how life might have existed on the Moon or other planets in the solar system. Due to the presence of magma-induced inorganic iron and their variable oxidation when mixed with incoming saline water, Dallol is susceptible to changing unearthly shades from orange to yellow to turquoise to white. The name Dallol itself refers to “dissolution or disintegration.”
Just over the hot spring also lies the Gaet’ale Pond that is nothing but a tiny, hypersaline lake. With 43 per cent salinity, it is the saltiest waterbody on Earth. What’s interesting is that, even though Danakil Depression has existed since the ancient times, this particular pond was only formed in January 2005 as a result of an earthquake in the region.
Maybe all this is why Danakil Depression continues to be one of the most alien places on Earth.