5centsapound:Andrea Frazzetta: DanakilPhotographer’s statement: Located in the northern part of the
5centsapound:Andrea Frazzetta: DanakilPhotographer’s statement: Located in the northern part of the Afar’s Triangle, which takes its name from the nomadic people who live there, the vast Danakil depression is the place where the constantly expanding of three tectonic plates join together, close to the border area among Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti.This land made of fire, salt and lava close to the Rift Valley - the long breach that bisects the continent - is the cradle of a “New Ocean”, intended to form as a result of the strong thinning of the earth’s crust and of a new possible flooding of the Red Sea.It is from the retreat of the sea, evaporated twenty thousand years ago, that the Danakil has gained its peculiarity: to be a spread of evaporitic rocks that gives rise to the Great Plain of Salt - a desert which stretches for about 600 kilometers.This is one of the most vulnerable places in the world: the fire is just below your feet, five kilometers away. In this vast plain, the Afars’ huts appear like a mirage. They are mainly devoted to sheep farming and to the extraction of minerals, living in one of the most inhospitable places on earth, with very little vegetation and temperatures that can reach 45 degrees. -- source link