Tour Guide, Mekele, Ethiopia
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Dallol Volcano
The Danakil Depression, also called Afar Depression, is a desert with some areas that are more than 100 meters below sea level. This is special because it is one of the lowest points on earth not covered by water. There are hot yellow sulfur fields among the sparkling white salt beds. Heat isn't the only thing people feel in the Dallol Depression. Alarming earth tremors are frequently felt. There are also several active volcanoes.
The landscape is dotted with bright yellow sulphur fields, green crystal pools and sparkling salt beds. This is the Danakil Depression, a basin in north-eastern Ethiopia, close to the Red Sea. It is one of the lowest points on earth not covered by water. Danakil is renowned for being the place with the highest average temperature on Earth. It tops 34 °C every day of the year and soars to 55 °C in the summer.
The people who are living in the region are Afar tribes, they are pastoralists and some of them engaged in salt mining as the depression is covered with salt.
Erta Ale Volcano
Erta Ale ranks as one of the most alluring and physically challenging natural attritions anywhere in Ethiopia. Rising from below sea level to an altitude of 613, Erta Ale is a shield volcano with a base diameter of 30km and 1km 2 caldera at its summit. Nestled within the caldera are two pit craters: more northerly one, though currently inactive, held a lava lake in 1968 and 1973, while the smaller ellipsoid central pit contains the world’s only permanent lava lake, which measures about 60m across and is 100m long.
Scientists think the lake must have a continuous link to a shallow magma chamber, which is itself fed on a regular bases by magma associated with the formation of the rift. Significant changes in activities where noted at Erta Ale over flank, and a fresh breach on the southern crater that has caused the lava to overflow its terrace and rise up to within 20m of the crater rim. Several earthquakes have also been recorded in the vicinity of Erta Ale in recent years, suggesting that a major eruption may be imminent.