Ethiopia: Danakil – Gaet’ale Red Pool aka Red Boiling Lake in Dallol
Next to the caldera, at its foot, there is a small pool with red water and red rock salt all around, known as Gaet’ale Res Pool. It has sizably shrunk from the last time I saw it in 2014. The water is not hot but it appears boiling in the middle of the pool as there is a spring bubbling gases out. Supposedly, this is the saltiest body of water on earth with 43% salinity. Looks surreal just like everything else around Dallol. And we found some dead water bugs, all covered with salt, which is amazing since all the sources on the web claim that this pool is not suitable for any life and the waters and gases are toxic. Interesting fact is that this red pool is supposedly around one of the lowest points of the Danakil depression. My watch registered -420 feet below sea level. Which is about 25 feet lower then Lake Assal in Djibouti (-395 feet). Similarly, Natalie’s watch also showed that Dallol is lower then Lake Assal (-139m vs -133). So then Dallol is the second lowest place on Earth after the Dead Sea in Israel!
