Skip to main content



In northern Ethiopia, at 130 meters below sea level, in the hottest valley in the world, there exists a series of pools that look more alien than anything that should rightly be found on Earth.

This is the dangerously beautiful Dallol Volcano, and hydrothermal system, found in the Danakil depression. The highest point of the volcano reaches -48 meters above sea level. Brine pools and acidic liquid spout from the ground, building up salt and sulfuric pillars as temporary geysers build them. Here, not two but three tectonic plates move away from each other, causing the land to sink deeper and deeper, and bringing up minerals from deep within the Earth. In the next few million years, the Red Sea will eventually fill the depression.

The word Dallol, in the language of the Afar people, means disintegration. The Disintegration Volcano.