TA1 Facility 3 – Danakil Depression
Average visit: 1 week
Please note: Due to the current political instability, applications to the Danakil Depression will not be considered currently in TA calls.
The Danakil Depression in the northern part of the Afar Depression, with its variety of extreme environmental conditions generated in an unique geological context has been recently pointed as a site with a great potential as planetary field analogue.
The Danakil Depression is part of the East African Rift System, an active continental rift system deforming a wide area between Djibouti and Mozambique.
The area is the real representation of a young Earth and complex regional geology and is notable for hosting environments at the very edge of natural physical-chemical extremities. A number of salt and sand flats occur around Dallol volcano and to its Southern part. Wide areas result dominated by volcanic, evaporitic and aeolian deposits.
The peculiar Dallol geothermal system surrounded by hyperarid salt plain, the axial volcanic Erta’Ale Range, the permanent and ephemeral hypersaline acidic and alkaline lakes make the Danakil filed analogue a target for future exploration programs.
Contact:
Prof Barbara Cavalazzi, University of Bologna, Italy. barbara.cavalazzi@unibo.it
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