Dallol in January-February 2011: Large and colorful ponds

A long rainy season has caused unusually strong hydrothermal activity at Dallol.

An older blue pond remains at a level well below the growing and very large green lake.

A small blue hornito with its hot spring on the top, and two more at its left foot in the green pond.

Pond evaporation has left these sculptures of salt look like hands reaching out of the green pond.

Panoramic view of the huge green ponds, with many yellow hot springs rising from its floor.

Zoom on the strongest hot spring (upper right). In the foreground, ponds of various shades of green.

Ponds of colors ranging from blue to pale green fill small terraces floating in the main lake.

Like in a coral reef, yellow ridges of salt rise to the surface of the blue lake.

Other terraces of white salt reach the surface of deep green ponds.

Most ponds are divided into regular sectors by tiny ridges of salt.

A salt hornito (lower right) fills terraces of salty water green of halophile algae.

Surprisingly regular subdivision into poligonal cells of a green pond.

The green pond in the foreground (the only one not yet drained) is being covered by a crust of salt.

Ponds may assume all shades of color from green to purple.

White and yellow salt ridges are boundaries between different colors.

Evaporating green ponds among thicker ridges of brown salt.

Our Afar guide crosses a yellow ridge of salt as if it were a bridge.

To reach Dallol, our jeeps cross Aasale Lake as if they were ships.

Crests of salt rise from the lake surface, regularly divided into poligonal cells.

The first jeep appears as a tiny dot at the horizon of a lake many km wide, but only about ten cm deep.