Planet Earth is the diverse territory par excellence. In the cosmos, until now, no other worlds as active as this one have been found. Among its lands are hidden unique places such as the Crystal Cave or Dallol, the hottest place on Earth. In the Ethiopian Danakil depression, formed by the Dallol crater. This is the lowest volcanic vent in the world, with a height of minus 45 meters above sea level.
The meteorological and geological features that gave rise to the extensive Danakil Plain are extremely intriguing. It is a salty terrain that emerged thanks to successive flooding and evaporation of the Red Sea. The last of them occurred about 32 thousand years ago.
As if this were not already intriguing, in 1926 a series of phreatic eruptions occurred that gave way to Dallol, the lowest on the planet. It is an extremely mysterious and beautiful landscape, covered with salt terraces and springs with shades ranging from aqua green, to yellow, through orange and brown. It looks like an emerging terrain from another planet.
But this is not the feature that attracts hundreds of scholars to the field. The high temperatures that range between 28 and 50 degrees Celsius have earned it the name ‘hell’ on Earth. Furthermore, the interaction of underground magma with salt has generated a hydrothermal system where extreme temperatures, hypersalinity and hyperacidity coexist with high concentrations of iron and lack of oxygen.
Dallol: the hottest place on Earth
The living conditions in a place with such characteristics are still unclear. The obvious would dictate that finding life on Dallol is unlikely. However, in other regions of the planet, microorganisms capable of withstanding high temperatures, radiation or high levels of acidity have been found.
Whether or not there is life in Dallol is still a mystery, an expedition from the Andalusian Institute of Earth Sciences under the ‘Prometheus’ project seeks to clear up that mystery. The results could change our perception of habitability not only on Earth, but elsewhere. Although the coin is up in the air, Juan Manuel García Ruíz, director of Prometheus concludes that:
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However, this vision could change if the Prometheus project manages to find life on Dallol. The next step would be to think that high-temperature planets like Mars could harbor life.