12 Geo Locations that Most Closely Resemble Hell on Earth6

By Steven Novak, Jul 01, 2010 in Pop Culture, Show News

12 Geographic Locations that Most Closely Resemble Hell on Earth

When someone mentions Hell, certain things immediately come to mind – nastiness, heat, sulfur, and fire. No matter what pops into your head, more than likely it’s something bad. In the KoldCast TV series Soul Fire Rising, where an ex-angel gives up her ethereal existence in favor of becoming a mortal, Hell shows up on earth to perform an “early pick up.” The truth is, you don’t have to die to see Hell. There are places right here on Earth that come pretty close to the imagined reality of Hell. Although every place on Earth has its “charm,” some places just can’t live down bad weather and wretched odors. Check out our list of the most “hellish” places you could vacation to – if you’re interested in an advanced look at your possible ultimate destination.

Soul Fire Rising, Episode 1: I Give You My Soul

1. Namaskar Pass, Iceland

Also known as the “Gateway to Hell,” Iceland’s Namaskar Pass features as diverse and bizarre a landscape as you’re likely to find anywhere on Earth. Whether it’s the hissing volcanic craters, the hot springs, the fumaroles, the mud pools, the mud springs or the even the lava formations, this entire place is absolutely bursting with the relentless energies boiling below.

2. Bisti Badlands, New Mexico

The Bisti – which is the Navajao word for badlands – is a cold, morose, and alien strip of land. In fact, this rocky, sandy, virtually empty desert is so weird you might think they’ve stepped through a doorway into another world. Nearly 70 million years ago, these badlands were a lush rainforest. To this very day, this place remains a graveyard to the world of the dinosaurs that called it home.

3. Dry Valleys, Antarctica

One of the worlds most extreme deserts, Antarctica’s Dry Valley region is the largest relatively ice-free region the continent has to offer. The extremely low humidity and uncommon lack of ice cover is mostly a result of something called katabatic winds – which can reach speeds of nearly 200mph.

4. Socotra Island, Indian Ocean

As the largest of four small islands located in the Indian Ocean, Socotra lies about 150 miles east of the Horn of Africa. The island is as isolated as an island can get and a third of its plant life is found nowhere else on the planet. Socotra is so weird that its been described by some as the most alien-looking place on Earth.

5. Rio Tinto River, Spain

Since ancient times (approximately 3,000 BC), a specific site along this Spanish River has been mined for copper, silver, gold and other valuable materials. As a result of the mining, the river itself is pretty much as acidic as a river can possibly get, and at this point may be analogous to subterranean Mars. This acid mine drainage has turned the water a frightening copper-red not too unlike the color you might associate with Hell.

6. Killuk, The Spotted Lake, Canada

In the hot sun of the summer, the water of Spotted Lake (located in British Columbia and Washington) evaporates and its minerals crystallize, which in turn results in many bizarre looking white-rimmed circles. This lake contains the world highest concentrations of magnesium sulphate, calcium, and sodium sulphates, and gives a new meaning to “swim at your own risk.”

7. Blood Pond Hot Spring, Japan

The waters of the aptly named particular hot springs in Beppu, Japan (one of nine that are more for viewing than bathing) are so iron rich that they’ve turned a red so very red you’ll think someone might have pulled a little photoshop trickery – until you see it with your own eyes.

8. Vale da Lua, Brazil

It’s not difficult to feel as is you’ve somehow left planet Earth and wound up instead in a harsher, and far more confusing plane of existence when visiting Vale de Lu, Brazil. The “Valley of the Moon” is the most visited area of Chapadea de Veadeiros National Park and is thought to be about 1.8 billion years old. Its rock formations, eroded by the waters of the San Miguel River, are among the oldest, and strangest in the world.

9. The Richat Structure, Mauritania

Only visible from outer space, the Richat Structure is a prominent circular feature in the Sahara desert of Mauritania near Ouadane. It has attracted massive amounts of attention since the earliest space missions because of its conspicuous, otherworldly bull’s-eye shape among the mostly featureless desert that surrounds it. Initially interpreted as a meteorite impact site, it is now thought to be a symmetrical uplift (circular anticline or dome) that has been laid bare by erosion.

10. The Stone Forest China

China’s Stone Forest is a notable, dangerous, freakish looking set of karst (eroded, sinkhole filled rock) formations in Shilin Yi Autonomous County, in the Yunnan province of southwest China. Rising angrily from the ground these stalagmites look remarkably like trees made of stone, and even more remarkably like something that belongs on another – far more imposing world – rather than here on Earth.

11. Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone

The Mammoth Hot Springs at Yellowstone is the largest carbonate-depositing spring on the third planet from the Sun. The spring’s most famous feature – the Minerva Terrace – is a series of travertine terraces which are the result of thousands of years of hot water cooling and depositing calcium carbonate. Over two tons of it flows into Mammoth each day. If this place isn’t hellish looking, I don’t know what is.

12. Hell’s Gate Geothermic field, Rotorua New Zealand

As the most active geothermal field in the Rotorua area, Hell’s Gate was given its name because of the foul-smelling springs of sulfurous water and vigorously bubbling pools of mud that call it home. Around the North Island’s volcanoes and geothermal areas, nearly 1,000 different (very weird) species of extremophile bacteria have been discovered thriving, despite the temperature, acidity, alkalinity, pressure, and salinity – often without sunlight or oxygen.

Soul Fire Rising, Episode 2: The Messenger

Watch more episodes of Soul Fire Rising

Steven Novak is a writer, illustrator, graphic designer and admitted lifelong nerd with an embarrassingly large DVD collection. He is currently working and living in the Southern California desert. His most recent fantasy/action adventure novel, “Forts: Fathers and Sons,” is available everywhere books are sold.