Science
Related: About this forumIn Earths hottest place, life has been found in pure acid
For the first time, scientists have found living microbes in the blistering hot springs of Ethiopias Danakil Depression.
By Jasmin Fox-Skelly
4 August 2017
In a surreal landscape of colours, dominated by luminescent ponds of yellows and greens, boiling hot water bubbles up like a cauldron, whilst poisonous chlorine and sulphur gases choke the air.
Known as the gateway to hell, the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia is scorchingly hot and one of the most alien places on Earth. Yet a recent expedition to the region has found it is teeming with life.
In the heart of the Horn of Africa, the Danakil Depression is one of the most remote, inhospitable and least-studied locations in the world. It lies over 330ft (100m) below sea level in a volcanic area in north-west Ethiopia, close to the border with Eritrea, aptly named Afar. It is part of the East African Rift System, a place where the Earths internal forces are currently tearing apart three continental plates, creating new land.
The violent landscape is arguably the hottest place on the planet, and one of the driest. The temperature regularly reaches 45C (113F). It rarely rains, but seas of molten magma ooze just beneath the crusts surface. There are two highly active volcanoes: one of them, Erta Ale, is one of only a handful of volcanoes to have an active, bubbling lava lake at its summit. The area is also littered with acid ponds and geysers, and features a deep crater called Dallol.
More:
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170803-in-earths-hottest-place-life-has-been-found-in-pure-acid
More images:
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Ilsa
(61,675 posts)Life on planet Earth after we manage to kill everything through global climate change.
Duppers
(28,094 posts)procon
(15,805 posts)Xipe Totec
(43,872 posts)Is it any wonder a certain sect was drawn to it? To be nearer their creator?
procon
(15,805 posts)area51
(11,868 posts)gilpo
(706 posts)I was thinking a cross between Yellowstone and Death Valley.
argyl
(3,064 posts)Much appreciation for your many posts on beautiful, unusual places. And others as well.
burrowowl
(17,606 posts)annabanana
(52,791 posts)NNadir
(33,368 posts)Liberty Belle
(9,528 posts)Plucketeer
(12,882 posts)we establish this place as a Republican retirement community?
spike jones
(1,654 posts)I think.
orangecrush
(19,236 posts)It was 1972...
burrowowl
(17,606 posts)Thanks for links!