![]() You will become dehydrated as a result of it. Water’s alkaline nature will undoubtedly draw water from your cells. If you put your hand into it, be careful. This temperature has the potential to produce serious burns. Right?Īlthough, most lifeforms find its waters to be caustic and inhospitable due to its high salt content, extreme alkalinity levels reaching as high as pH levels of 12, and scorching temperatures reaching up to 60 ☌ (140 ☏). Also Read: How to avoid drowning in the Dead Sea? As a result, only bacteria and no other organisms can thrive in this environment. The rich reds of the open water of the lake and the orange colours of the shallow areas of the lake are produced by the red pigment in the cyanobacteria. Salt-loving creatures thrive in water and create their own food through photosynthesis. This red colour is due to the presence of cyanobacteria. The salts make it alkaline, but they don’t colour it. So, does this salt give it a reddish hue? According to Hannes Mattsson, a researcher at the Swiss Institute of Technology in Zurich, this volcano is favourite among petrologists because it’s the only one of its sort. The soluble salts were brought to the surface and fed into Lake Natron by Ol Doinyo Lengai, a million-year-old volcano immediately south of the lake. Lets get to the point: What is the origin of the name Lake Natron? The main source of water for Lake Natron is the Ewaso Ngiro River, which has its basin in the central Kenyan highlands. It’s also home to some of the strangest pictures ever taken – images that appear to show living animals turning to stone. Lake Natron has a length of 57 kilometres and a width of 22 kilometres. In northern Tanzania’s Arusha District, there is a magnificent and eye-catching lake. Why is this so unique, or should I say dangerous? Why can’t humans survive if they fall into it? Is there anything that lives or reproduces here? And plenty more… ![]() This leads me to assume that everything that is given away for free has a cost. There is one condition: you must fall into Lake Natron and surrender your life. Will you continue to deny it? That is something I don’t believe anyone can deny. If I say you can have one for free, I’m not kidding. Oh! There’s no way this debt-ridden life can take on any more debt. Without a doubt, we’d like one for ourselves. But what actually happens is that the corpses of animals which died in the lake are sometimes preserved by the sodium carbonate minerals and other salts that were used by the ancient Egyptians for mummification - calcifying their bodies.We all enjoy admiring statues. More than 2 million lesser flamingos use the lake as their primary breeding ground in Africa.īut when animals die and end up in the water, something odd happens: it looks like living animals turned to stone instantly on hitting the lake. Karumbaįlocks of flamingos, other birds and tilapia fish all call the lake their home. Lesser flamingoes flock to Lake Natron in their droves for breeding season Image: Getty Images/AFP/T. While it may be paradise for haloarchaea, many creatures can't survive in such alkaline waters – but animals whose bodies are adapted to such pH levels also inhabit the lake, meaning Lake Natron is far from barren. The reason for the lake’s colorful water is down to haloarchaea, microorganisams that flourish in its salty waters – the vermillion shade is even more stunning at the end of the dry season, when the water level is especially low. The stunning red color is caused by haloarchaea, microorganisms which love salty water Image: imago/Bluegreen Pictures/J.-C. The water comes from mineral hot springs and a river, but the lake doesn't drain out to any sea or river – evaporation is how the shallow lake loses water, which can reach as high as 41 degrees Celsius (106 degrees Fahrenheit). The lake actually takes its name from the naturally-occurring blend of chemicals it contains. This raises the lake's alkalinity to far above water's normal neutral pH of 7. Lake Natron's very alkaline water has a pH of around 10.5 - too high for many animals Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Mary Evans Picture Library/A. Ol Doinyo Lengai, an active volcano, lies not far from the lake. It owes its unusual chemistry to the surrounding volcanic geology: the minerals, particularly sodium carbonate, and salts created by volcanic processes flow into the lake from the surrounding hills. The lake's extremely alkaline water has a pH as high as 10.5, similar to milk of magnesia, a treatment used to neutralize stomach acid. ![]() But when coupled with the sight of dead animals seemingly turned to stone, the lake appears even more eerie. The scarlet waters of Lake Natron in northern Tanzania are eye-catching enough by themselves. ![]()
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