Salt Mushrooms

As we got out of the car, we could smell the nose-piercing smell of sulfur all around us. At our feet, table-like formations of various sizes, several tens of centimeters high and from several tens of centimeters to one meter in diameter, covered the ground. The figures were what the locals call salt mushrooms, brown and shaped like mushrooms growing out of the salt earth. The temperature outside was over 40°C (104°F)—a soldier with a gun passed by the salt mushroom hill.

Salt Mushrooms 
<Series 23 : "Salt Mushrooms" >
Four-wheel drive on Lake Asare during the dry season to the northwestern end of the lake. There is a 4-day/3-night tour to Dallol from Mekele, a city in northern Ethiopia. Still, an armed escort is essential due to the lack of security.

As we got out of the car, we could smell the nose-piercing smell of sulfur all around us. At our feet, table-like formations of various sizes, several tens of centimeters high and from several tens of centimeters to one meter in diameter, covered the ground. The figures were what the locals call "salt mushrooms," brown and shaped like mushrooms growing out of the salt earth. 

The temperature outside was over 40°C (104°F)—a soldier with a gun passed by the salt mushroom hill.
Location: Dallo, Northeastern Ethiopia, February 2015
For more information:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Karum
Equipment: Canon EOS 5D markⅢ; Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8l Ⅱ USM; Capture One 21; Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
☘️
☘️
☘️
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.
☘️
You can buy this series photo at Adobe stock  >>
Thank you for your interest



☘️🔗  My Portfolio  🔗☘️
Adobe Stock | #ethiopia


Photography by  Masakazu
↑Back to Top