Volcano Dallol. Ethiopia. Dallol Volcano - the lowest volcano in the world (Ethiopia) So to whom or what does Dallol Volcano owe its uniqueness and variety of colors

Dallol Volcano is one of the most unusual natural phenomena on our planet. Looking at its crater and the surrounding landscapes, it seems as if this territory has stepped out of the canvas of an artist who has embodied the cosmic landscapes of the satellite Io in paint. In addition to its extraordinary beauty, the giant's area is known as one of the hottest areas on Earth. The average daily maximum temperature in this area reaches 41 °C, and the annual average is about 35 °C. What else is unusual about Dallol? Its crater is one of the lowest subaerial volcanic vents and is located at an altitude of 48 meters below sea level.

Location: Danakil, Ethiopia
Height: - 48 m
Type: volcanic crater
Number of eruptions: 2 since 1926

The volcano is located in the Danakil depression within the Ethiopian Afar Basin, where the Aden Range, the East African Rift and the Red Sea Rift intersect. During its formation, the basin was subject to floods several times, but seawater quickly evaporated in the dry, hot climate. It is believed that in a few million years this region will be completely flooded and...

Most of Danakil is covered by salt marshes, basaltic lava flows, numerous shield volcanoes and subaerial craters formed during phreatic (steam) explosions. One of these eruptions created the Dallol crater in 1926. Since then, the volcano has been dormant, but in January 2011 it exploded again and was active for 4 days.

The reason for the appearance of Dallol was the intrusion of basaltic magma into Miocene salt deposits, followed by hydrothermal activity. The current state of the volcano is characterized by numerous hot springs and periodically appearing geysers. Through hot springs, a supersaturated salt solution comes to the surface, which forms salt cones of white, yellow, brown, orange and green. The unusual colors are associated with the activity of halophilic algae, as well as with the fact that on the way to the surface, water passes through evaporite deposits, dissolving salts, potash and other minerals.

The beauty of Dallol's landscapes attracts many tourists, but the crater is dangerous to visit, since under the thick crust of solidified salt there can be pools of acidic water. Danakil’s harsh climate and the volcano’s remoteness from civilization pose no less of a threat. There are many known cases of attacks on tourists, so excursions to Dallol are accompanied by armed guards.

The landscapes of the volcanic crater Dallol, located in northeastern Ethiopia, resemble rainbow alien landscapes Io, a satellite of Jupiter. Potassium salts, manganese and iron washed to the surface color the salt flats in sandy, scarlet and greenish shades, forming a lifeless surreal landscape. The rocky basaltic silhouettes and depressions of the Dallol volcano are some of the most impressive geological formations in East Africa, formed by crystallization; The salt columns in the crater can reach a height of several meters. The colorful rocks illustrate millions of years of evolution of the earth's crust.

Dallol is the only volcano in the world with a crater below sea level. Its surroundings are considered one of the hottest places on Earth, where the average annual temperature reaches +34°C. The last volcanic eruption was recorded in 1926.

The volcanic crater of Dallol is speckled thermal springs, the temperature of the gases released from them is very high. Therefore, when traveling deep into the Danakil Desert, you should choose shoes with hard soles, as well as clothing that will protect your skin as much as possible from exposure to toxic liquids. It is worth taking care of warm clothes and a change of underwear; Such tours imply a Spartan lifestyle, slightly brightened up by the hospitality of the host country.

How to get there

The best way to see the cosmic landscapes of the Dallol volcanic crater is to go on a guided tour organized by local tour operators. Such tours include visits salt lake Afrera, a camel ride through the Danakil Desert, an introduction to the Ethiopian salt industry and communication with nomadic people afar. The price of the trip includes the services of an English-speaking guide and accompanying persons (including armed guards), who ensure not only the safety of the tour participants, but also take care of sufficient water (8 liters per person per day), food and a roof over their heads, organizing camp in the most suitable place according to natural conditions. Some overnight stays are provided in guest houses and small private hotels. The duration of these types of tours is 9-12 days, depending on the number of natural attractions in northern Ethiopia that you plan to visit. Most tours start in Addis Ababa, the capital, and include a flight to Mekele; further travel takes place on 4x4 SUVs. The cost of the trip averages $4,200 per person, but may vary depending on the chosen program and the number of participants.

Location

The Dallol volcano is located in the Danakili fault, in the Afar region, in the northeastern part.

Ethiopia or Abyssinia is a country located in East Africa. The word Ethiopia itself is Greek and means “the country of people with burnt faces.”

Tourists call Ethiopia the country of the sun, as the weather is beautiful sunny all 365 days a year, but not as hot as in other neighboring African countries.

Currently, tours to Ethiopia have become very popular. There is something to see here: in Axum - ancient castles, a complex of monasteries in Gondar, in Addis Ababa - the palace of Emperor Menolik 2. But today tourists go for exotic things to the most inhospitable, hostile desert on the planet - the Danakil Desert, where an unusual, striking volcano is located called Dallol. Here tourists will see snorting geysers, huge bizarrely shaped salt columns, bubbling, smoking lakes and an active volcano.

The area where the volcano is located is the hottest place on earth. The temperature here is always high, 40-52 degrees. The volcano rises near a large salt lake called Karum, the thickness of the salt in some places reaches 1 and even 2 km. At night, life is in full swing here, as the Afar nomads mine salt; the temperature at night reaches 52 degrees.

It has not yet been studied, but it attracts people so much with its fantastic beauty. And many people come here to admire the beauty of the fantastic, unearthly landscape. But the flow of tourists is insignificant because the roads are not good enough.

How to get to Dallol Volcano?

Tourists must come first to buy a plane ticket from Moscow to Addis Ababa, and then to regular bus come to the city of Mekao, from where you can get to Dallol by car.

The landscape around the volcano is unusual, unearthly, as if it was painted by science fiction artists, and they depicted the planet Mars or Jupiter. The territory seems uninhabited, but this is not so; not far from the volcano there is a settlement of nomads - Afar. Over the years, it has turned into a small town, its residents mining potash ore from the volcano.

The uniqueness of Dollol volcano

The largest geological uniqueness in this area is the salt canyons. Huge salt pillars reaching 40 meters in height were discovered here; the pillars are deposits of bed-colored table salt.

Here the ground is covered with a crust of salt, and hot lava pours out of the rocks, just like in a fairy tale. Thanks to the influence of sulfur, this lava is painted in bright, fancy colors.

Extraordinary landscapes, springs, painted with all the colors of the rainbow, attract more and more tourists to Dallol volcano. Many tour operators organize tours to Danakil Depresson so that tourists have the opportunity to see these springs with their own eyes and admire the volcano. These hot springs, rocks painted in all the colors of the rainbow, huge limestone pillars, already petrified, built by nature, make tourists feel like they have been in another world. And this world is beautiful.

Ethiopia. Dallol Ertale ​

Latitude 14.242°С 14°14"30"С / Longitude 40.30° E 40°18"0" E
The Dallol volcano, which in the language of the local Afar tribe (located in the small village of Hamed-Ela) is called “the place of no return”, or “the place of entry into hell”, is located inDanakil Depression in northeastern Ethiopia, a remote location with the highest average temperatures and lowest volcanic activity on the planet. Experts still disagree on whether Dallol should be considered a volcano or whether it is “just” an area of ​​geothermal activity. During last eruption Dallol volcano, there was a strong explosion of groundwater, which terribly devastated the area and destroyed the mountain literally to the ground. The volcano includes Mount Dallol (which rises only 50-60 meters above the surrounding salt flats and measures approximately 1.5 x 3 kilometers) and a number of other surrounding features, such as the 1926 crater near the "Black Mountain" at approximately 1 .5 kilometers southwest. Black Mountain it is a steel-blue body of water surrounded by rust-red soil, located in close proximity to a massive black lava rock formation. Although the stench is terrible and reminiscent of fertilizers with pig manure. If you remove the oxygen mask (without which it is simply impossible to be here), a gag reflex immediately occurs. On the way to Hamed Ela there is another set of acid bubble pools. At first glance they look like a huge yellowish-brown therapy pool, but in fact, they are poisonous.

Dallol located at an altitude of at least 1000 meters above a thick layer of quaternary evaporation, including large potassium salt resources, the source of which will be discussed in more detail below. Mount Dallol is believed to have been formed by the eruption of basaltic magma. A circular depression located near the center of Mount Dallol is believed to be a collapsed crater, although neither its age nor the exact process that led to it is known. The southwestern flank of Mount Dallol contains impressive salt canyons formed as a result of erosion processes. Acidic waters pouring from the ground onto your feet and everything around you sometimes become quite smelly and pungent. Although visitors to this unique geothermal source will be rewarded with a visual fireworks of color, shape and imagination. Surrounded by a yellow-green sea, where the sulfur floats like sheets of ice, small islands of solid rock rise from where you can enjoy a beautiful view of the entire volcano. It's interesting to know that expanding gases in magma can produce spectacular fountains of low-viscosity lava. You can also hire an English-speaking guide from Mekelle, which is halfway from Berhale, who, among other things, organizes mandatory security in the form of police officers who will accompany travelers.

In 1926, a phreatic eruption created a 30-meter wide crater, and this was the last significant event in the life of Mount Dallol . Activity is currently occurring in the hot salt springs. The salts are leached from the underlying layers and transported to the surface by geothermal hot water and quickly crystallize as the water evaporates. The characteristic white, yellow and red colors are the result of sulfur and potassium salts colored by various ions. Dallol terminology is often used to define even large area, which can lead to confusion because there is mining in the area.

The Danakil Depression lies in what is effectively the northern extension of the East African Rift Zone. It is located in a gap formed as a result of gradual separationDanakil salient from the Ethiopian highlands. Because the area is 120 meters below sea level, it has been repeatedly flooded while the ongoing process of rifting allowed waters from the Red Sea to pass. It appears that this area was separated from the Red Sea about 30,000 years ago, when volcanic activity to the north in the vicinity of Zula Bay again created a barrier to the sea's entry. After each flood, partial or complete evaporation of sea water led to massive salt deposits. These deposits are highly layered because when large masses of salt water evaporate, the carbonates, sulfates and chlorides of sodium, calcium, magnesium and potassium precipitate at various stages of the evaporation process. Basically, the depositional zones of natural potassium chloride range from 15 to 40 meters in thickness.

Potash deposits cannot be formed simply by the simple evaporation of seawater, but are believed to form from the rise of hydrothermal brines in the overlying seawater through the process of evaporation. Geothermal/volcanic activity is indeed common in continental extension basins such as the Danakil Depression and further evidence of volcanic networks in the area that includes the active Erta Ale volcano. Even if lava does not reach the surface, the volcano is quite active and dangerous. It is a wide basalt volcano measuring about 50 kilometers in diameter and rising more than 600 meters above sea level. At the top, the volcano forms an elliptical crater (volcano crater), about 1600 by 700 meters wide. According to scientists, the volcano has erupted 7 times over the past 125 years.

Primary ( those. Sedimentary) potassium deposits in the Dallol area tend to occur with other vapors, and the entire area around Dallol is covered on the surface by alternating layers of rock salt and mud at a depth of several meters. This "crust" is the result of periodic flooding of the area, sedimentation of enriched waters from nearby uplands, and subsequent drying out. In the south of Dallol, the crust is cut into rectangular slabs and goes up into the highlands near an endless procession of camel caravans. These slabs are later sold to Mekele to be processed into table salt.

Mount Dallol is one of the few places where potash deposits are found on the surface. They are brought to the surface geothermally
heated underground water and can form large secondary deposits, because the water that carries them evaporates. It was once estimated that the spring in the Black Mountain region brought about 1,000 tons of potassium chloride to the surface in one year. Black Mountain consists of table salt enriched with manganese.

The colorful springs at Mount Dallol get their colors mainly from ferric chloride and ferric hydroxide (both white-greenish), ferric chloride (yellow-brown) and ferric oxide (brown). Active sources tend to be white or yellow in color, while older inactive sources eventually turn a rust color as a result of ongoing oxidation processes.

There are also numerous fumarole areas on Mount Dallol.
Fumaroles have a low temperature and are only visible when they emit a little gas. The proportion of sulfur dioxide gases appears to be quite low and the resulting deposits are not crystalline sulfur, as in many areas where fumaroles are found. Egg-like formations, fumarole deposits can be observed in a white to yellowish color. They appear to be made of thin layers of salts. You need to be careful while walking, because... There may be small holes here. You also need to know that the terrible desert heat increases the evaporation of gas and, in particular, after 10, everything becomes unbearable and without oxygen masks, dangerous. Walking in the region is quite dangerous, as the concentration of gas on the ground can become so high that kneeling down to get a better photo can lead to temporary loss of consciousness and suffocation.

The salt canyons southwest of Mount Dalol are some of the most impressive geological features in the area. Salt pillars reaching heights of up to 40 meters have been found in these canyons and erosion has created elevated areas. The pillars are composed of hundreds of layers of slightly pinkish table salt deposits separated by thin layers of a plaster-like material. The pillars, coated with gypsum anhydrite and clay, are protected from rain erosion.

A few kilometers south of the mountain Dalol there are also springs with beautiful colors. They include a lake with a diameter of 40-50 meters containing yellow water. The surface appears bluish, but where water rises to the surface, a yellow color becomes visible, giving an unusual color contrast. Several medium or small geysers are visible on islands in or along the lake coastline. The landscape in the area of ​​these springs is red, presumably due to iron compounds.

Potassium deposits have economic value as a component of fertilizers. The first attempts at extraction were made in 1906. Camels were first used as transport. Construction began in 1917 railway and a terminal where trucks arrived. Then a deep-sea port was built Massawa.

Today you can see the remains of mining infrastructure, workers' homes, and walls that were built from salt blocks.

In 2007, an Indian coal company received a license to mine potash fertilizers.

In early 2011, heavy rains led to an increase in water entering the hydrothermal systemon Mount Dalol. The result was extensive filling of the area Central Depression in Dalol together with hydrothermal waters. The area covered by active springs was also much more extensive than in normal years and temperatures in many springs were unusually high with several areas of increased vaporization or severe outgassing. Minor geyser activity could be observed in some places. In addition, in one of the areas there was a large number of dark green hydrothermal deposits. The images below were taken at the end of January 2011.

The beautiful hot springs at Dalol are attracting an increasing number of tourists, with many tour operators organizing tours to Danakil Depression to see the springs and the Danakil Depression volcano further south. Mount Dalol can currently be reached by 4x4 vehicle, within 1 day from Mekele and 2 days from main road Addis-Djibouti. However, in 2007 and 2008 there were repeated attacks on tourist convoys by separatists from R Revolutionary Democratic Front ( ARDUF). Creation improved infrastructure gradually increases security, but even The current small but rapidly increasing influx of tourists is causing visible damage to the fine structure in the geothermal area.

When you look around and see bright colors, reflected from the stones, the various stone-shaped limestone structures built by nature and the calm relationship of the hot springs with everything, you will feel as if you were on another planet.

Area map, Dallol Volcano, Ethiopia:

One of the most mysterious and little-explored corners of our planet is the Dallol volcano, which is located in the middle of the desert in Ethiopia. The area around the volcano is considered uninhabited due to heavy natural conditions, however, in fact, not far from the volcano there is one human settlement...

At the beginning of the last century, a small settlement appeared in the basin called Afar. Over the years, the settlement grew to the size of a small town, whose inhabitants were mainly ordinary workers who mined potash ore in the Dallol volcano.

The area around the volcano is considered one of the hottest places on earth. average temperature is 34 degrees, while in summer the thermometer rarely drops below 40 degrees! These are the conditions in which people had to work...
However, in the middle of the last century, the mining of potash ore was suspended, and the city gradually fell into disrepair. On this moment You can get to this forgotten town only using caravan routes...

There are many versions of why the mine was abandoned. If you believe official version, then production was stopped due to an incredibly aggressive environment in which even the latest equipment quickly broke down, and people who inhaled toxic gases became seriously ill.

It would seem to be a completely true story, if not for one thing: people still live not far from Dallol! The local nomadic Tribes tribe not only manage to survive in conditions of constant heat and supposedly toxic emissions from the volcano, but according to eyewitnesses they also look quite healthy! In addition, people from the tribes tribe are very fond of the lands around the volcano and are trying in every possible way to interfere with all research carried out near the volcano.

So what is so remarkable about this area and the Dallol volcano itself?! Firstly, the Dallol volcano is considered the lowest volcano in the world, since its mouth is located at 45 meters below sea level. Secondly, in an ancient manuscript called the “Book of Enoch” this territory is described as a hellish abyss that will soon break into our world and swallow it up. The records contain many references to the end of the world, and the apocalypse will begin precisely with the opening of the gates to the hellish abyss, that is, from the moment of the volcanic eruption.

Most likely, the gate refers to the crater of the volcano. However, since the writing of the Book of Enoch, Dallol has erupted several times, and its last awakening dates back to 1926. However, this eruption was rather weak, so all these prophecies about the end of the world can be attributed to the superstition of ancient people. At the moment, the volcano has “fallen asleep”, and there is no activity in its crater...

The area around the volcano itself looks very unusual. Given the intense heat and amazing landscape, the traveler may feel like he is on another planet! The local hills and rocks are all yellow, green and red. The area received this color due to salts that are washed out of the volcano and, once on the surface, instantly crystallize. In the southwestern part of Dallol there are beautiful salt canyons that were formed due to erosion.