Erta Ale Lava Plateau - 1 -

As I descended to the bottom of the caldera, which spread below the camp's cliff, the smell of hydrogen sulfide gas gradually became stronger. There were no animals or plants in front of me, and from the direction of the south pit, I heard a low-pitched, eerie sound like boiling a high-viscosity liquid. At the pre-trekking meeting, it was announced that the lava lake in the south pit is currently active and that gas masks may be required depending on the wind direction.

Erta Ale Lava Plateau
<Series 11 : Erta Ale Lava Plateau>
As I descended to the bottom of the caldera, which spread below the camp's cliff, the smell of hydrogen sulfide gas gradually became stronger. There were no animals or plants in front of me, and from the direction of the south pit, I heard a low-pitched, eerie sound like boiling a high-viscosity liquid. At the pre-trekking meeting, it was announced that the lava lake in the south pit is currently active and that gas masks may be required depending on the wind direction.

The shape of the Erta Ale caldera is elliptical when viewed from directly above, just like the ellipse's long axis rotated about 45 degrees clockwise. In 2015, two crater pits were distributed to the north of the caldera, the south crater pit with a lava lake and the north where there was no lava lake but the lava that flowed out had formed a chimney-shaped dome, and then both of the crater pits were emitting purple smoke.
Location: Erta Ale, Northeastern Ethiopia, February 2015
For more information:​​​​​​​ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erta_Ale
Equipment: Canon EOS 5D markⅢ; Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8l Ⅱ USM; Capture One 20; Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
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The bottom of the crater was filled with porous basalt, creating a vast monochromatic world. The lava plateau was mostly charcoal-colored, but place by place covered with tan moss-like material( It was clear or yellow fiberglass.)
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Colletion> 
Title:  To Afar Triangle in Ethiopia: one of the harshest places on Earth

A new adventure has begun; to meet the harshest nature on earth; to meet the lives of Ethiopian peoples living in the harshest places.


In 1974, several hundred pieces of fossilized human bones more than 3 million years old were found near the village of Hadar, Ethiopia, and it was found to be a female skeleton of Australopithecus afarensis, and she was named "Lucy".  

The broad-leaved forests that provided fruits: Lucy's main foods, had decreased drastically with the advent of the Sahara Desert and the Great Rift Valley, which began forming about 10 million years ago; it was necessary to descend to the ground and move between the trees to obtain the fruits.

The Afar Triangle, or Afar Depression(as known as the Danakil Desert), located in northeastern Ethiopia, was said to be one of the harshest places on earth and was formed by the Great Rift Valley.  In the Danakil Desert, the lowest elevation is below -100m above sea level and the dry season temperature is close to 50°C; surprisingly, this is the place where the Afar peoples live, besides, this place is a region with extremely active uplift: the volcano Dallol, which has the crater in the lowest place in the world on land: the volcano Elta Are, which has a low-viscosity lava lake.
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Photography by  Masakazu
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