Where it all begins!

This is a hydrothermal sulphur pool at Dallol, 120 m below sea level, along the axis of the onland portion of the Red Sea Rift in the Afar Depression of Ethiopia. Here the Rift is still in an immature stage, with magma starting to intrude the upper crust promoting limited spreading events from a small magma chamber. The surface expression of this process is the Dallol salt dome, uplifted by the underlying emplaced magma, but still lacking volcanism, even though already showing substantial and unique hydrothermal manifestations. Such a proto-volcanic system marks the early stage of development of a volcanic rift zone, which in a few million years will promote the spreading of the nearby tectonic plates.