LAKE NATRON IN AFRICA SKIN

There are also proposals to build a hydroelectric powerplant on the main source river for the lake. Currently there is no legislation to protect the lake and its unique ecology. There are, however, concerns about the lake’s preservation. Lake Natron is remarkably interesting to scientists because organisms do thrive in this extremely hostile environment. ( SaraPaola / Adobe) What Are the Environmental Concerns? Petrified salty remains of plants and animals. The petrification does however appear to happen very quickly. This is made clear by the population of flamingos, let alone the fish, that live in contact with the lake without being petrified. The birds also do not petrify instantly on contact with the water. This is similar to the reason that birds tend to fly into glass doors and car windows. This could lead them to accidentally crash into the lake. One theory that has been suggested by Brandt is that as the birds fly over the mirror-like surface of the chemically saturated lake, they become confused and think they are flying over empty space. It is not entirely clear how the birds die.

They are so life-like that a photographer who explored the lake in 2011, Nick Brandt, started putting the birds in life-like poses and taking pictures of them. The birds appear to have been preserved almost perfectly, feathers and all. The shores of this lake are covered with thousands of intact petrified bird corpses that have washed ashore. (NASA / Public Domain ) A Bird Grave Yard Numerous near-white salt-crust 'rafts' pepper the shallowest parts of the lake (inset – bottom). The southern half of Lake Natron (top). Fault scarps and the Gelai Volcano can also be seen. They may represent the only survivors who were able to successfully adapt as the lake acquired its uniquely hostile characteristics.

These organisms may be evolutionary descendants of animals who lived on the lake before its current chemical environment arose. It appears to contain a stable ecosystem consisting of a population of flamingos, at least one species of fish, and algae. ( Uryadnikov Sergey / Adobe)ĭespite this hostile environment, the lake is not lifeless.

Lake Natron – Panorama - Aerial view - Tanzania. The waters can also reach temperatures as high as 140 degrees Fahrenheit. It can very easily chemically burn animals not adapted to the sodium carbonate-rich conditions. The alkalinity of the lake is what gives the body of water its unusual properties. The natron content in the lake has given it a pH level of about 10.5 which is comparable to that of ammonia. The substance enters the lake through material eroding from the surrounding hills. The nature of the lake comes from a chemical called natron which is a mixture of sodium carbonate and baking soda. Lake Natron is a salt lake, meaning that it has no outlet for the water to exit the lake other than evaporation. When the birds wash up onto the shore, their lifeless bodies appear to have been turned to stone. Its shores are littered with the corpses of birds who perished by crashing into the lake.

LAKE NATRON IN AFRICA SKIN

The water is so caustic that it can burn the skin and eyes of unprepared creatures. In a remote part of northern Tanzania in Africa there is a mysterious lake.

Lake natron in africa