Hey, I was there! Drove through a sandstorm, watched the car’s thermometer climb to 45C, hiked 3 hours across lava rocks, all so that I could stand for an hour at the edge of Erta Ale, which has the world’s longest active lava lake. Awesome experience!
As mentioned in the video, we can find some of the most fascinating microorganisms in extreme environments such as the Danakil depression. Since extremophiles have adapted to these extreme conditions, they have unique features which are very important in biotechnology. To give you an example, heat-stable enzymes have been isolated from extremophiles and are now routinely used in PCRs (for which the Chemistry Nobel Prize in 1993 was awarded - would love to make a video about that myself). It will be interesting to see what else we can discover in these extreme environments!
And what is going to happen to the existing life as the place fills up and becomes an ocean? Maybe some day, there will be hot vents at the bottom of an ocean there as it is a depression caused by magma rising; so, also volcanic.
It's interesting that we can find life having evolved to deal with such extreme places. At this point, due in part to our limited access to other worlds, it seems that we are still alone as a planet in being inhabited by life. Given the ability of life to find so many niches despite apparently inhospitable circumstances, the big question seems to be, "what kickstarts life"?
My aunt is an anthropologist and Lucy was in my childhood stories she would tell me about her and how they knew it was a her and what she would’ve done I loved it
The craziest thing is about 5 miles up the road there is a village where locals live and have lived for a very long time without air con or electricity living a fairly normal life. That blew my mind just as much as the depression
We used to have a lava lake here in Hawaii. However it drained and vanished at the start of the 2018 Kilauea eruption. Now we have a crater water lake that has formed in its place. Earth is so cool!!
I mean, it does bare some underlying similarities to the Elephant Graveyard from The Lion King which served as the backdrop for one of the best villian songs of all time. th-cam.com/video/XkU23m6yX04/w-d-xo.html
"If there's one thing the history of evolution has taught us, it's that life will not be contained. Life breaks free, it expands to new territories, and crashes through barriers painfully, maybe even dangerously, but, uh, well, there it is. ..." ~ Ian Malcolm 1993
@@antiisocialIt's common to quote Malcolm but he was right. Life is very hardy and it will not go out without a fight. A more apt quote would probably be Life finds a way because life must find a way or die. But that's not as snappy.
@@glenngriffon8032 I also just realized that one day far in the future, someone is going to read all these quote memes and wonder who all these people were! 😂 Edit: And wonder why are some of them so stupid! 😂😂
"... what with the ultra-hot days, and the throat-corroding air, and the pools of boiling acid." But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?
This is so wild, I was wondering the other day when y'all would make a video about the Danakil Depression. What an incredible place and this video is exactly what my system needed. So satisfying.
When Hank mentioned the Red Sea flooding the Danakil Depression, I started singing "The Coming of the Great Nebraska Sea," which is a wonderful filk song by Blake Hodgetts, based on the 1963 short story by Allan Danzig.
*A new study from French and Spanish scientists focuses on a place on Earth where liquid water is abundant, but life is absent. The area is called Dallol, and it’s a geothermal field in Ethiopia. It features hot, acidic, hypersaline ponds. The new study is published in Nature and is titled “Hyperdiverse archaea near life limits at the polyextreme geothermal Dallol area.”*
Welcome to the amazing Ethiopia. The land of origins. The land of extremes. Spectacular landscape, Historical sites, Food, Coulture with beautiful people! Come and visit.
New studies about plate tectonics suggest when the crust formed the difference between intense heat from the core and cool crust temperatures caused the planet to expand slightly (1km) causing cracks to form. Like when you try to boil a cracked egg.
Earth: "Haha, hope you don't mind my embarrassing spots. Just ignore them." Life: "Yeah but what if I just-" Earth: "Wait! What?" Life: *Laughs in extremophile*
Hi, according to Wikipedia the Danakil Depression is not on the map shown at 0:47. The Danakil Depression is located on the northern part of the Afar Triangle (Afar Depression) at the border to Eritrea.
Spent some time in Eritrea at the Red Sea port of Massawa. Great sea life but it was hot there and I've spent most of my life just outside of Death Valley. That was the only place that I would sweat while swimming in open water. Missed getting to the Danakil because of the war though.
@@inhumanfilth681 It actually very likely will. Those organisms underwent many substantial changes in order to become adapted to that environment. If the sea suddenly rushes in the environment will change very suddenly into something those organisms aren't adapted to and they'll die
Ten point deduction for misuse of quotation marks, and five points for leaving off the period. I'm afraid you won't make it to the next round, but thanks for playing.
uhhhhhhhhhhh nope that's the scientific method. Most theorems are currently just the next best thing to have come along. Newton->Einstein->Bohr. Given observations and the evidence, what is most likely? Good scientists don't deal with absolutes It's a jab at anything nonsensical, why would it imply evolution denial specifically?
Austin Theists are among the most delusional and cling onto fallacy’s because of their fear of the unknown, I think he really was a jab at them specifically to be honest.
@@nuck- Perhaps it would be interesting for you to know that Lucy has an ape brain capacity, ape fingers, wrists, collar bones and ear canals (for balance), and though found without any feet, was drawn with human feet. There are reasons some evolutionists are highly skeptical that she is anything but an ape.
Awesome place I never heard of until today. A bit south of their is a few other unusual bits of geography. Lakes of uniquely evolving cichlids, volcanos black liquid lava, etc.
I imagine with the proper magnetism applied or nullified; the tectonic plates can surf around pretty fast if the next layer down liquidizes a bit more.
I don't feel like I learned much here. - What's the regions temperature range? - How does that compare to others? - How deep is the depression? - Volcanoes? No video shown :( Less face-time more vidoe time
I always thought "Lucy" was an adaptation of the "Last Universal Common Ancestor" acronym, what with "Australopithecus afarensis" meaning "Great ape from afar (or the distant past)"
@@its.cassie my point was that I thought that was the origin of the name. A. afarensis is, by far, one of the oldest true ancestors of h. sapiens sapiens, just so you know...
The most commonly reported highest temperature for Death Valley is 134°F (57°C). However it is likely that this temperature was recorded incorrectly. A more reliable number is 129°F (54°C). The highest recorded temperature for Danakil Depression is 125°F (52°C) according to one site: and 122°F (50°C) according to a different site. So (as the video notes) Death Valley still wins on hottest day. And it probably wins on hottest month. However it is substantially north of the Danakil Depression and it gets cold in the winter so the Danakil Depression has a much higher year round average temperature than Death Valley. The bottom line here is that in the summertime Death Valley might have the highest temperatures on earth both for a day, for a month and for the summer season. It is really hot in Death Valley in the summertime.
An interesting point about all those earthquakes in the region is that geologist believe that a quake in just the right spot at just the right magnitude could open a channel to the Red Sea. The sudden influx of water could destroy thousands of square kilometres of Eritrea and result in Ethiopia 🇪🇹 having an inland coast.
Extremophile's are the perfect example as too why the "goldilock's zone" isn't a golden rule for extra-terrestrial life to develop. "Life will find a way."
@@thesneakymemedealer5071 Bare minimum is entirely relative to the planet and the ability for amino acids to form but perhaps that's too Earthy of me assuming amino acids are needed. Maybe that's just specifically what happened here and somewhere else it truly is Alien to what we think as life. 😂
Yup! Always chapped my chops when the scientists insisted for a planet to have life, it must have water and oxygen. Since when?! We have micro-organisms living in sulphur near 800F vents on the ocean floor. We havent got a clue.
I got depression just watching about this place. You know i always wondered where GW2 got the idea for the Acrid Springs in the Desolation zone, i def see the similarity lol
I live close to death valley and the hottest it reached growing up here was 129. Summertime averages close to 110 with a few weeks between 115 and 120.
Ist assuming the difference between hot places below sea level is atmosphere overhead; the real climate of thickening atmosphere can be related from places lower than sea level: greenhouse effect isn't just the concentrations of gases, but the lens thickness of the overall amount of gases. A thicker lense a more dramatic concentration in sunlight heat. thats all.
Hey, I was there! Drove through a sandstorm, watched the car’s thermometer climb to 45C, hiked 3 hours across lava rocks, all so that I could stand for an hour at the edge of Erta Ale, which has the world’s longest active lava lake. Awesome experience!
You did more than most and I commend you. Your living your best life while I watch from the bleachers. Cudos
As mentioned in the video, we can find some of the most fascinating microorganisms in extreme environments such as the Danakil depression. Since extremophiles have adapted to these extreme conditions, they have unique features which are very important in biotechnology. To give you an example, heat-stable enzymes have been isolated from extremophiles and are now routinely used in PCRs (for which the Chemistry Nobel Prize in 1993 was awarded - would love to make a video about that myself). It will be interesting to see what else we can discover in these extreme environments!
I just learned about Taq! Very useful microfriend indeed
I just discovered that places like the Danakil Depression have a higher than average population of serial killers and animal shelters.
And what is going to happen to the existing life as the place fills up and becomes an ocean? Maybe some day, there will be hot vents at the bottom of an ocean there as it is a depression caused by magma rising; so, also volcanic.
I remember they use the Rna polymerase called Taq polymerase which is extracted from the extremophile Thermus aquaticus.
It's interesting that we can find life having evolved to deal with such extreme places. At this point, due in part to our limited access to other worlds, it seems that we are still alone as a planet in being inhabited by life. Given the ability of life to find so many niches despite apparently inhospitable circumstances, the big question seems to be, "what kickstarts life"?
My aunt is an anthropologist and Lucy was in my childhood stories she would tell me about her and how they knew it was a her and what she would’ve done I loved it
V cool. You should share through a children’s book, from your POV.
Please do not assume it’s gender 🙄
The craziest thing is about 5 miles up the road there is a village where locals live and have lived for a very long time without air con or electricity living a fairly normal life. That blew my mind just as much as the depression
i hope you have overcome your depression now
All they ever ask is “How hot is the Danakil Depression?” when the things they should ask is “How is the Danakil Depression doing?”
its toxic af
Danakil
toxic, the danakil depression is toxic.
@John I was going to say something like that! Lol
No wonder danakil is depressed
We used to have a lava lake here in Hawaii. However it drained and vanished at the start of the 2018 Kilauea eruption. Now we have a crater water lake that has formed in its place. Earth is so cool!!
That's some prime evil lair real estate.
Primeval
Fright Zone
I mean, it does bare some underlying similarities to the Elephant Graveyard from The Lion King which served as the backdrop for one of the best villian songs of all time.
th-cam.com/video/XkU23m6yX04/w-d-xo.html
@@davidmowbray4230 (Prime) (evil lair) real estate
Trump tower coming soon
Ethiopia 🇪🇹
Most of us have never been there, I went there once in 2016.
The rest of Ethiopia is like 20-25 degrees Celsius the rest of the year.
Polyextremeophiles: because life always finds a way.
"If there's one thing the history of evolution has taught us, it's that life will not be contained. Life breaks free, it expands to new territories, and crashes through barriers painfully, maybe even dangerously, but, uh, well, there it is. ..." ~ Ian Malcolm 1993
@@antiisocialIt's common to quote Malcolm but he was right. Life is very hardy and it will not go out without a fight. A more apt quote would probably be
Life finds a way because life must find a way or die.
But that's not as snappy.
@@glenngriffon8032 Of course it must!
If it didn't, it wouldn't last long.
Lol. 👍
@@glenngriffon8032 I also just realized that one day far in the future, someone is going to read all these quote memes and wonder who all these people were! 😂
Edit: And wonder why are some of them so stupid! 😂😂
The compromise is a single cell existence. Simple does extremes better. Complexity has too many necessary contingencies.
Death Valley: I am the hottest place on Earth!
Danakil Depression: Hold my bottle of boiling acid.
Death Valley: uhhh...
Very funny
And deadly corrosive air.
"You salty bro?"
Phoenix: Ha ha ha.
Atacama Desert: I am the driest place on Earth. Your acid baths will only last as long as you keep the Red Sea out. Doesn't that just depress you?
Clever pun on acid from the scientists that named Lucy in the Danakil with Depression.
"... what with the ultra-hot days, and the throat-corroding air, and the pools of boiling acid."
But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?
Simba: Hey dad what's the shadowy spot over there
Mufasa: Oh that's just where we keep the boiling acid
@A's notes Lol dude I'm talking about the cartoon character
I'm a depression, though not even close to hot.
that's cold.
That just means you're cool
This got a good laugh out of me
Lol
How people call those microorganisms living in boiling salty acid: *extremophiles*
How they call us: *weaklings*
Most extremophiles will die in the conditions we thrive in, and vice versa.
"Probably only kicked into high gear about a century ago."
🤯
What a cool place to observe the effects of plate tectonics!
This is so wild, I was wondering the other day when y'all would make a video about the Danakil Depression. What an incredible place and this video is exactly what my system needed. So satisfying.
Danakil depression: where rivers go to die.
I read the title as “Dank Depression”. Would’ve been lit 🔥🔥🔥
Yuuhhhh 🔥🔥🔥
You're not wrong.
Billy Masterson okay billy
That's nice. Cool story bro.
When Hank mentioned the Red Sea flooding the Danakil Depression, I started singing "The Coming of the Great Nebraska Sea," which is a wonderful filk song by Blake Hodgetts, based on the 1963 short story by Allan Danzig.
*A new study from French and Spanish scientists focuses on a place on Earth where liquid water is abundant, but life is absent. The area is called Dallol, and it’s a geothermal field in Ethiopia. It features hot, acidic, hypersaline ponds. The new study is published in Nature and is titled “Hyperdiverse archaea near life limits at the polyextreme geothermal Dallol area.”*
I have depression
Well, I have Danakil Depression; literally boiling here...
I had a similar thought. :(
I saw Lucy when she visited the Houston Museum of Natural Science!
Literally hell on Earth?
are demons just eukaryote extremophiles
Ever been to Los Angeles?
@@friedchickenUSA someone learned a new word today 😂
Well its in Africa
No. That's Texas.
Welcome to the amazing Ethiopia. The land of origins. The land of extremes. Spectacular landscape, Historical sites, Food, Coulture with beautiful people! Come and visit.
New studies about plate tectonics suggest when the crust formed the difference between intense heat from the core and cool crust temperatures caused the planet to expand slightly (1km) causing cracks to form. Like when you try to boil a cracked egg.
Earth: "Haha, hope you don't mind my embarrassing spots. Just ignore them."
Life: "Yeah but what if I just-"
Earth: "Wait! What?"
Life: *Laughs in extremophile*
Hank for President!
Needed more footage of the actual area.
Hi, according to Wikipedia the Danakil Depression is not on the map shown at 0:47. The Danakil Depression is located on the northern part of the Afar Triangle (Afar Depression) at the border to Eritrea.
Spent some time in Eritrea at the Red Sea port of Massawa. Great sea life but it was hot there and I've spent most of my life just outside of Death Valley. That was the only place that I would sweat while swimming in open water. Missed getting to the Danakil because of the war though.
Cute watching scishow talking about a place I've visited!
Anyone else feel sorry for those polyextremophiles for when the sea fills it in?
Nooooope, i doubt a bit of salty watter will kill what none of that other crazy stuff would
@@inhumanfilth681 It actually very likely will. Those organisms underwent many substantial changes in order to become adapted to that environment. If the sea suddenly rushes in the environment will change very suddenly into something those organisms aren't adapted to and they'll die
@@limiv5272 very fair point
Depends how quickly that process will occur
Assuming that they actually care about a little thing like huge amounts of saltwater, crushing pressure, and ecosystem collapse.
Where I live doesn’t even have “seasons”
I mean, it’s just hot cold hot cold cold hot warm cold hot
ALL YEAR (yes, even in winter)
lucky you
Ten point deduction for misuse of quotation marks, and five points for leaving off the period. I'm afraid you won't make it to the next round, but thanks for playing.
Slappy haha 😂
South cali?
Sounds interesting, where do you live?
This is going to be a great reference for the humans are space orcs
That place looks just like an area in the video game Skyrim, though in Skyrim, it's just pretty. No boiling acid.
So what you're telling me is that we have found the literal hell on earth.
No hell is in michigan. (Its a town)
@@m3d1ated42 no it's a small town in norway
@@m3d1ated42 no where near Libya which records 142 degrees and locals barely have any water soooooo
@@CheetoStix14us over 150 degrees were recorded in texan prison, what about that kind of hell
So...since Lucy lived there, the whole place has kind of gone to hell?
Or at least everything's gotten all depressed.
Ah yes, the Lucy fraud. No skull... part of a jaw... yet its a humanid.... and not just a short human, but she did live there
@@w8stral A quick google search reveals they have about 40% of the skeleton.
@@thecynic75 And the most important parts(the head) = 1% if that as there are no connecting bones.
"And that's OK. Scientists can handle uncertainty. It comes with the job."
A delightfully subtle jab at evolution denial. Perfection.
Very unsubtle
uhhhhhhhhhhh nope that's the scientific method. Most theorems are currently just the next best thing to have come along. Newton->Einstein->Bohr. Given observations and the evidence, what is most likely? Good scientists don't deal with absolutes
It's a jab at anything nonsensical, why would it imply evolution denial specifically?
UsenameTakenWasTaken
I loved it!!
Austin
Theists are among the most delusional and cling onto fallacy’s because of their fear of the unknown, I think he really was a jab at them specifically to be honest.
@@nuck- Perhaps it would be interesting for you to know that Lucy has an ape brain capacity, ape fingers, wrists, collar bones and ear canals (for balance), and though found without any feet, was drawn with human feet. There are reasons some evolutionists are highly skeptical that she is anything but an ape.
2:57 I guess that’s where the badlands biome in Minecraft came from🤷🏼♂️🤷🏼♂️
Awesome place I never heard of until today.
A bit south of their is a few other unusual bits of geography. Lakes of uniquely evolving cichlids, volcanos black liquid lava, etc.
what are the names of the lakes and/or cichlids??
id love to look into that more
I wish it had more pics of the landscape but pretty good.
Love love love this.
That's a weird place for sure.
Danakil Depression Polyextremophiles: "Don't leave the valley, out there is a weird place"
"When they found her, she was the _oldest_ .. Anarchy server in minecr- "humanoid ever found" oh.
Awesome place I never heard of until today.
A bit south of their is a few other unusual bits of geography.
This place is like a piece of IO on Earth. Freaking cool.
2:47 Hey! I have that exact same insulation in my house's crawlspace, same piss yellow colors and errthing!
Don't breathe it in.
genuinely thought the thumbnail said the dank depression...
Internet Cookie Check this weird science channel : th-cam.com/video/hmywg30chI8/w-d-xo.html
@@guillaumegallen.8286 NO
bring back the roaring 20s...now with dank depression
theshuman100 the screaming 20’s
@@theshuman100 The 20's are soon upon us again.
“So famous, I bet you know her name”
*jumping up and down, excited*
“OMG LUCY”
I love the Danakil Depression.
I imagine with the proper magnetism applied or nullified; the tectonic plates can surf around pretty fast if the next layer down liquidizes a bit more.
been too long since you had a new weird places video scishow! do more!
I keep reading the thumbnail as "the dank depression"
So this literally hell on earth.
Thanks for the video
Whoa, just whoa.
Lucy was named after some potheads haha I love this
When the Red Sea breaks into the depression, it will be truly catastrophic.
Still not as hot as a hot pocket
I mean, that's literally true. A hot pocket directly out of the microwave will be far hotter than 34°
I'm hotter than 34 lol
Please make a video on how this environ “kicked into high gear” about a century ago.
Heck I wanna be there when the sea starts rushing in, thats gonna be epic!
I love science
Holy mother of pearl, I’ve never been this early to any video ever.
Oh, and great video, i never knew this place even existed!
The trick is to subscribe to channels that no-one else watches.
That's awesome :) thank you
Death Valley Furnace Creek hit 130 degrees about a week ago! It Made the national news........
we reach upto 47 °C and even above in summers here in Rajasthan
Mantle plumes are terrifying.
FYI, Kavir Loot desert in Iran has a higher record than death valley. DNews (currently Seeker) has a video on it.
That’s surface temperature not atmospheric temperature. Plus DV has a higher surface temperature anyways
"Home to all of the extremes"
--except the cold...
Thanks brilliant!
I am both being extremely flattering and thanking the sponsor.
I don't feel like I learned much here.
- What's the regions temperature range?
- How does that compare to others?
- How deep is the depression?
- Volcanoes? No video shown :(
Less face-time more vidoe time
Death valley temperature drops below freezing quite often
I always thought "Lucy" was an adaptation of the "Last Universal Common Ancestor" acronym, what with "Australopithecus afarensis" meaning "Great ape from afar (or the distant past)"
Many new species have been found since, so she lost that title
@@its.cassie my point was that I thought that was the origin of the name. A. afarensis is, by far, one of the oldest true ancestors of h. sapiens sapiens, just so you know...
Maybe all this beautiful extremes aren't just from chaos.
Maybe they are designed this way
The most commonly reported highest temperature for Death Valley is 134°F (57°C). However it is likely that this temperature was recorded incorrectly. A more reliable number is 129°F (54°C). The highest recorded temperature for Danakil Depression is 125°F (52°C) according to one site: and 122°F (50°C) according to a different site. So (as the video notes) Death Valley still wins on hottest day. And it probably wins on hottest month. However it is substantially north of the Danakil Depression and it gets cold in the winter so the Danakil Depression has a much higher year round average temperature than Death Valley. The bottom line here is that in the summertime Death Valley might have the highest temperatures on earth both for a day, for a month and for the summer season. It is really hot in Death Valley in the summertime.
I want to go there to check out those acid pools. I could thing of a few things I'd like to try out with that acid, nothing illegal or mafarious.
how did I not know about this? it sounds like something that should be on a different planet
Why is there no closed captions on this video?
An interesting point about all those earthquakes in the region is that geologist believe that a quake in just the right spot at just the right magnitude could open a channel to the Red Sea. The sudden influx of water could destroy thousands of square kilometres of Eritrea and result in Ethiopia 🇪🇹 having an inland coast.
And Ethiopia gets the finest harbor in the continent!
@@bircruz555 it’d definitely be a nicely protected anchorage, that’s for sure.
Life always finds a way.
are the pools of water in Danakil acidic enough to dissolve people like that one hot spring in Yellowstone?
Extremophile's are the perfect example as too why the "goldilock's zone" isn't a golden rule for extra-terrestrial life to develop. "Life will find a way."
just give it some time and the bare minimum to survive and it will.
@@thesneakymemedealer5071 Bare minimum is entirely relative to the planet and the ability for amino acids to form but perhaps that's too Earthy of me assuming amino acids are needed. Maybe that's just specifically what happened here and somewhere else it truly is Alien to what we think as life. 😂
Yup!
Always chapped my chops when the scientists insisted for a planet to have life, it must have water and oxygen.
Since when?!
We have micro-organisms living in sulphur near 800F vents on the ocean floor.
We havent got a clue.
Death Valley just set a world record at 130F this week (Aug 2020)
Cool episode!
So will it be called the Danakil sea?
I saw Lucy once, museum in Denver co
It’s 6am and I want to sleep but my brain wants to watch sci show. Help.
It is crazy that there are such places on earth yet it seems no one talks about them.
I got depression just watching about this place.
You know i always wondered where GW2 got the idea for the Acrid Springs in the Desolation zone, i def see the similarity lol
I live close to death valley and the hottest it reached growing up here was 129. Summertime averages close to 110 with a few weeks between 115 and 120.
130 now
Yes, but do they have an Airbnb?
Nah, at best you get chlorinebnb...
Ist assuming the difference between hot places below sea level is atmosphere overhead; the real climate of thickening atmosphere can be related from places lower than sea level: greenhouse effect isn't just the concentrations of gases, but the lens thickness of the overall amount of gases. A thicker lense a more dramatic concentration in sunlight heat. thats all.
ONLY 34°C? Bro, that’s 4th of July in Charleston, SC.
34 degrees? I think we get that pretty often in Malaysia... Not sure about the average tho.
Just curious, is there an average plate boundary?
Sounds like a good place to test space suits for exoplanet exploration...some day.
I flew over it when I was traveling between Addis Ababa and Djibouti way back in 1985. It was awesome.
Danakil appears to be the inspiration for the planet Monarch in Outer Worlds