Gaet'ale Pond

Gaet'ale Pond is a small but striking hypersaline lake near the Dallol hydrothermal field, one of the saltiest bodies of water anywhere in the world. The water is coloured an intense yellow-green by minerals and microorganisms, and the surface is encrusted with salt crystallisation around the edges. Despite the hostile chemistry, extremely halophilic (salt-loving) microorganisms exist here in concentrations visible to the naked eye.

The pond is included in most Dallol tours as a short detour. The surrounding salt crust is fragile in places, and guides keep visitors to established paths. The combination of Dallol's acid pools, Gaet'ale's hyper-saline water, and the broader Danakil landscape gives an extraordinarily vivid demonstration of the extreme chemical and thermal environments that earth produces at tectonic boundaries.

things to do sight nature
A story
Gaet'ale Pond is one of the saltiest bodies of water on earth — salinity levels around 43%, compared to 3.5% for ocean water. In 2010, a single thermal event caused it to grow rapidly from a small pool to a much larger one; the expansion happened in days and forced a rerouting of the tour path around the Dallol field. The pond is so dense that objects placed in it float at the surface with unusual buoyancy.