The saltiest lake on earth is located in Djibouti, a small republic overlooking the Gulf of Aden at the junction of the Red Sea. Lake Assal is ten times saltier than the ocean and is even saltier than the Dead Sea.
The Lowest Place Within the African Continent
Lake Assal lies within the Danakil Desert, a location where several other saline lakes can be found. This area, at the head of the Great Rift Valley, is the lowest point of land that can be found within the African continent, being 510 feet (155 metres) below sea level. Had it not been for a barricade of mountains, the Danakils, damning the Red Sea from inland, the Afar Depression, including the Assal itself, would have been at the bottom of the seabed.
The surrounding terrain also means the Afar Depression is incredibly inhospitable, its summer temperatures soaring to 57 degrees Celsius (135 degrees Fahrenheit). It is one of the hottest places in the world. Blistering desert winds scour this landscape, creating glistening saltpans that had once formed the lakebed.
The Republic of Djibouti and the Afar Triangle
The saltiness of Lake Assal is because of the unique location. It is placed within a region known as the Afar Triangle, a section of land radiating out from a point one hundred miles north of Addis Ababa and towards the coasts of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. This area is one of the most disturbed in the world, forming the junction of the African and the Arabian tectonic plates and the setting for continental drift. Evidence of such disturbances can be seen on the coast of Djibouti where sullen volcanoes litter the coast.
The Rising of the Danakil Mountains
This phenomenon of new land being formed by the action of plates moving apart usually occurs on ocean floors, such as the Mid-Atlantic Trench. In Africa, one can view this spectacle on dry land. In fact, Lake Assal had once been part of the Gulf of Aden, until the rising of the Danakil Mountains denied the gulf further access. Occasional rains washing the minerals from the mountains and the percolating action of the gulf through the rocks is all that feed the Assal, increasing its salinity.
Huge saltpans radiate out from the lake, bleaching out the landscape. All that remains are shallow stretches of water sprouting strange cauliflower-shaped salt deposits, which are sculptured by the wind and the blistering sun. Due to the salinity of the water and the incredible heat, nothing grows there and few, if any creatures can be seen. The landscape’s eerie beauty belies its status for one being an area of death. The only movements that might be seen are from the Afar Sudanese people, harvesting the salt for their livelihood ("Lake Assal - Djibouti", BBC Science and Nature website, 10 June 2009).
A Salty Lake in Djibouti
Lake Assal is ten times saltier than the ocean and saltier than the Dead Sea. Located at the junction of the African and the Arabian plates, it is the setting of continental drift. If it were not for the rising of the Danakil Mountains on the coast of Djibouti, the Assal would have formed part of the Red Sea. Instead, it is located at the lowest point of land within the African continent and is but a shallow lake fringed with huge saltpans. Despite its eerie beauty and bizarre jewels of salt, it is one of the most inhospitable places on earth. (Discovering the Wonders of our World, Noel Buchanan et al., Reader's Digest, 1993)
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