Lake Assal Hot Springs

Lake Assal Hot Springs in Djibouti are natural geothermal phenomena around the shores of Lake Assal — at 155 metres below sea level the lowest point in Africa and the third lowest land surface on Earth — where the extraordinary tectonic activity of the Afar Triangle, one of the world's most volcanically and geologically active regions, drives intense geothermal springs along the shoreline of this hypersaline salt lake. The lake's water, ten times saltier than the ocean, and the surrounding volcanic landscape of obsidian lava flows and salt flats create one of the most otherworldly environments on Earth. The Afar Triangle, where three tectonic plates diverge and where the birth of a new ocean is actively underway, gives Lake Assal's hot springs a geological significance of planetary scale.