Lake Natron
Looking for the weirdest places on earth? How about this
terrifying lake? Animals that die in this African lake are turned into statues,
through calcification. The presence of huge volumes of sodium bicarbonate
ensures they turn into mummies. And because of the high alkaline collection,
the lake looks red in color. This is the reason why this lake is also known as
the ‘Petrifying Lake’. In spite of all these conditions, it is grazing ground
for the Lesser Flamingos. Fancy a dip? Don’t even think about it!
1.
Located in Tanzania, Lake Natron is a soda lake or a salt lake that can be
found in Arusha Region.
2.
It is a dead-end lake which means that the lake doesn’t drain into any river or
sea.
3.
The principal feeder of this lake is Southern Ewaso Ng’iro River that
originates in Central Kenya.
4.
This shallow lake is also fed by hot springs that are rich in minerals. When we
say shallow, we mean pretty shallow. The maximum depth of the lake is 9.8 feet
or 3 meters only.
5.
Despite its shallow depth, the lake is quite big in length and breadth. It runs
57 kilometers in length and 22 kilometers in width but the width can
occasionally vary depending on water level.
6.
The lake is known for its consistent high temperature. The average temperature
of the lake is 40˚C or 104˚F but occasionally, its temperature peaks at 60˚C.
7.
The lake is extremely salty. The alkalinity of the lake stays at an average
level of 10.5 but there are times when the pH levels can reach as high as 12.
8.
The bed rock surrounding the lake belongs to the Pleistocene period and is
composed of trachyte lava that is dominated by sodium content.
9.
The lava has low levels of magnesium and calcium and high levels of carbonate
which makes the lake water a concentrated caustic alkaline brine.
10.
During summer months, the lake water evaporates significantly, thus increasing
the overall salinity of the lake. This is when halophile organisms thrive.
Halophiles are micro-organisms that thrive in salty conditions and use
photosynthesis for making food.
11.
Most abundant halophile microbe at Lake Natron is the cyanobacteria. This
bacterium has a red pigment that it uses for photosynthesis.
12.
It is this red pigment of the cyanobacteria that gives the characteristic red
color to the open waters of the lake and orange color to the shallow water of
the lake.
13.
The lake also supports a few other life forms that include some endemic birds,
invertebrates and algae.
14.
About 2.5 million lesser flamingoes (a species
of flamingoes) use the lake as their regular breeding ground. They thrive on
the cyanobacteria which grow in numbers when the salinity of the lake
increases. Increased numbers of cyanobacteria means more nests of lesser
flamingoes.
15.
The reason these birds choose Lake Natron as their breeding ground is that the
extremely harsh and inhospitable conditions keep away predators. The evaporite
islands that form seasonally are the most preferred nesting grounds for these
birds.
16.
The two endemic or native fish species that live in Lake Natron are A.
ndalalani and Alcolapia latilabris. Both of these are alkaline
tilapias.
17.
Another fish species known as A. alcalica lives in the lake too but it
is not native to the lake.
18.
The sodium carbonate and other alkaline minerals that are deposited into the
lake are actually washed down the surrounding hills. The lake also has large
amounts of deposits of sodium carbonate that was once used for Egyptian
mummification.
19.
Because of the extreme salinity of the lake, many media reports surfaced which
stated that any animal that comes in contact with the water gets turned into
stone immediately. This is definitely not true because the lake has a thriving
ecosystem.
20.
Nick Brandt’s exquisite photograph did add up to this delusion of the lake
killing animals coming in contact with the water despite the fact that Brandt
specifically mentioned that he had no idea how the animals died
21.
Nick found a series of dead animals washed up along the shorelines of the lake.
These dead animals included birds and bats.
22.
Brandt noticed that the dead animals had chalky deposits of sodium carbonate
outlined on their bodies that created a sharp relief.
23.
All he did was to grab those dead animals and put them in lifelike position to
photograph them.
24.
The photographs he captured definitely casts a notion that these animals died
just by coming in contact with the water or because of the extremely harsh
atmospheric conditions.
25.
Irrespective of the reason for the death of these creatures, the photographs
have become iconic and are considered as world’s most phantasmagorical photographs.
26.
The lake is today facing enormous dangers. A hydroelectric power plant is
supposed to be set up in Kenya Ewaso Ng’iro River.
27.
Once the power plant is place, it will lead to huge influx of siltation which
will disrupt the salinity balance of Lake Natron.
28.
Yet another threat is from the proposed soda ash plant (a joint venture between
National Development Corporation of Tanzania and Tata Chemicals Ltd of Mumbai,
India) supposed to the set up on the shores of this lake.
29.
The plant is supposed to extract sodium carbonate from the lake so that it can
be converted to washing powder and exported.
30.
Worst part is that there are no protection plans in place. Simply put, it will
be a mayhem on Lake Natron’s biodiversity, specially the lesser flamingoes in
East Africa because that lake is their only nesting ground. Thus, these birds
can just become extinct in East Africa.
