June 20 – Martyrs' Day in Eritrea

nPostednon June 20, 2016

nI’ventalked a bit about the 30-year war of independence innEritrea in an earlier post.nToday is set aside to remember the tens of thousands ofnpeople who died during that generation-long struggle.

nUnfortunately,nthe two nations involved in that war — Ethiopia and Eritrea — are still skirmishing along the border! Like, when Ingoogled “Eritrea” just now, there was a news item about a deadlynbattle from just a few hours ago!

nWhen-oh-whennwill peace reign in that region?

nRathernthan go back through the depressing stuff about humans vs. humans,nwith way too much killing along the border, I thought I would talk about the DanakilnDepression, on the border between Eritrea and Ethiopia. n

nThenDanakil Depression has nothing to do with the sad kind of depression,nnor with killing (despite its name). Instead, it is a very low-lyingnarea, a depression in the Earth’s crust.

nThe Depression is there because, in the Horn ofnAfrica, where Eritrea is located, several tectonic plates are moving apart from one another, morenquickly than is usual for geological movement. The Horn of Africa isneventually going to be ripped off of the rest of Africa, and we are witnessing the birth of a new ocean.

nYounprobably know that the rocky crust of the Earth is not solid, butnrather made up of plates of different sizes and shapes. Theynslo-o-o-o-o-owly ride on top of the hotter, more mobile mantle.

nInnsome places, two plates are pulling away from each other, movingnapart. Magma rushes in to fill the widening gap. When this happens onna continent, like Africa, a low rift valley is formed. Eventually,nmost rift valleys fill up with water and eventually eventually mostnbecome steadily widening oceans!

nHerenyou can see some of the directions in which plates are pulling apartnin that part of Africa.

ThenDanakil Depression is the hottest place on Earth, when you look atnyear-round average temperatures. It is one of the lowest places onnEarth (330 feet below sea level, or 100 feet below sea level), and itnhas no rainfall most of the year.

nItnsounds a bit like hell, doesn’t it? But…when you look at the magmancrater lakes in the Danakil Depression’s active volcano, and younconsider the fact that the hot springs smell like sulfur…

nI mean, come on! Look at this place!!!

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There’s not much life in thisntectonically active region. Any microorganisms that live there are extremophiles (organisms that love extremenenvironments), most of them thermophiles (organisms that love reallynhot environments).

nStill,neven though the Danakil Depression isn’t exactly lush with lifeforms,nunderstanding the biology going on there may be helpful innunderstanding the sorts of lifeforms we might find on other planetsnand moons. Also, this area is called the cradle of the hominidsnbecause Donald Johanson and his colleagues discovered the famousnAustralopithecus skeleton we call Lucy there.