{"id":282045,"date":"2019-07-19T14:00:40","date_gmt":"2019-07-19T18:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.google.com\/articles\/CBMiMGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmF0bGFzb2JzY3VyYS5jb20vcGxhY2VzL2dhZXRhbGUtcG9uZNIBAA?oc=5"},"modified":"2026-10-12T13:53:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T17:53:16","slug":"gaetale-pond-afar-earth-saltiest-natural-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/282045","title":{"rendered":"Gaet\u2019ale Pond in Afar is Earth\u2019s saltiest natural body of water, denser even than the Dead Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Gaet\u2019ale Pond, a small hot lake in Ethiopia\u2019s Afar Depression a few miles from Dallol, holds the highest natural salinity recorded on Earth at about 43 percent, Atlas Obscura reports.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" height=\"780\" width=\"780\" class=\"size-large wp-image-837659\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/gaetale-pond-afar-2017.jpg?fit=780%2C780&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"A partial view of Gaet\u2019ale Pond in the Afar Depression, Ethiopia\" \/><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>A partial view of Gaet\u2019ale Pond in the Afar Depression, Ethiopia (Ruben.melcon, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0) [file photo]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>That salt load\u2014mainly calcium chloride and magnesium chloride from volcanic processes\u2014makes the pond more than twelve times saltier than the open ocean and denser than the Dead Sea, whose salinity is about 33.7 percent. Only Antarctica\u2019s Don Juan Pond, a smaller brine pool, approaches it among known hypersaline waters.<\/p>\n<p>The roughly semicircular pond is about 60 metres across. Local accounts say it formed after an earthquake in January 2005. Water temperatures run roughly 50\u201368\u00b0C (122\u2013155\u00b0F). The Afar Depression is one of the world\u2019s most tectonically active regions, and Dallol ranks among the hottest inhabited places on Earth.<\/p>\n<p>Toxic gases that periodically vent from the pond kill insects and small birds along the shore. Researchers treat the site as a health hazard for visitors. Atlas Obscura describes Gaet\u2019ale as a lasting geographic reference point in the Danakil landscape rather than a tourist swim stop.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sources:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atlasobscura.com\/places\/gaetale-pond\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Atlas Obscura<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gaet\u2019ale Pond, a small hot lake in Ethiopia\u2019s Afar Depression a few miles from Dallol, holds the highest natural salinity recorded on Earth at about 43 percent, Atlas Obscura reports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":837659,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-282045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/gaetale-pond-afar-2017.jpg?fit=1280%2C960&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-1bn7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282045"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":837693,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282045\/revisions\/837693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}