Erta Ale Lava Lake after dark

When the camp is dyed in the sunset color, I started my second trek. I went down to the caldera's bottom under the dim cliff and headed for the south pit with the lava lake. I illuminated my feet with the LED light on my hat, and when I headed to the pit several hundred meters away, the smell of hydrogen sulfide gradually became stronger, and I wore a gas mask. As I continued shooting at the southern edge of the south pit, the soles gradually felt hot and the smell of burning rubber. I moved to the western edge of the pit and resumed shooting. Suddenly, fireworks-like lava with a dull plosive sound blew high into the sky from the southern edge that was standing earlier.

Erta Ale Lava Lake after dark
<Series 14 : Erta Ale Lava Lake after dark>
When the camp is dyed in the sunset color, I started my second trek. I went down to the caldera's bottom under the dim cliff and headed for the south pit with the lava lake. I illuminated my feet with the LED light on my hat, and when I headed to the pit several hundred meters away, the smell of hydrogen sulfide gradually became stronger, and I wore a gas mask.

As I continued shooting at the southern edge of the south pit, the soles gradually felt hot and the smell of burning rubber.  I moved to the western edge of the pit and resumed shooting. Suddenly, fireworks-like lava with a dull plosive sound blew high into the sky from the southern edge that was standing earlier.
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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In 2015, I was able to get closer to a distance of about 2 meters from the edge of the south pit, and I could observe the inside of the lava lake. As time allowed, I kept shooting until the camera's SD memory card was full.
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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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Thank you for your interest



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Photography by  Masakazu
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