Photo of the Day 242

Climbers on Ertale Volcano, Ethiopia, 2005

Photograph by Carsten Peter

Climbers in Ethiopia's Danakil Desert prepare to descend into Ertale volcano. The volcano, which has been active for nearly a century, has a lake of molten lava at the center of its caldera.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Africa's Danakil Desert: Cruelest Place on Earth," October 2005, National Geographic magazine)