![]() And for those animals that do become interred here, animals don’t immediately die and turn to stone upon touching the lake. Lake Natron is a hotspot for beautiful life. READ ALSO: Does helium make your car faster? Do flamingos turn to stone when they touch Lake Natron?īBC natural history unit programs and even a Disney documentary have featured the flamingos who congregate in this picturesque place. It is a highly alkaline lake that occupies a depression created by the Rift Valley, a lava desert area of rugged beauty in the extreme north of Tanzania. Lake Natron is fifty kilometres in length and about twenty-five in width. The water is oversaturated with salt, can reach temperatures of 140 degrees and has a pH between 9 and 10.5-so corrosive that it can calcify those remains, strip ink off printed materials and burn the skin and eyes of unadapted animals. The water’s alkalinity comes from the sodium carbonate and other minerals that flow into the lake from the surrounding hills. The alkaline water in Lake Natron has a pH as high as 10.5 and is so caustic it can burn the skin and eyes of animals that aren’t adapted to it. READ ALSO: What do blue collar workers need? What happens if you touch Lake Natron? ![]() They are characterized by high concentrations of carbonate salts, typically sodium carbonate (and related salt complexes), giving rise to their alkalinity. What causes an alkaline lake?Ī soda lake or alkaline lake is a lake on the strongly alkaline side of neutrality, typically with a pH value between 9 and 12. Scientists disagree on the source of the deadly gas within Lake Nyos. On the night of 21 August 1986, between 1,600 and 1,800 people and countless animals were killed by a large natural release of carbon dioxide gas. The lake responsible for the most deaths without drowning is Lake Nyos in Cameroon, Central Africa. The alkali salt crust on the surface of the lake is also often colored red or pink by the salt-loving microorganisms that live there. The red accessory photosynthesizing pigment in the cyanobacteria produces the deep reds of the open water of the lake and the orange colors of the shallow parts of the lake. The uniqueness of lake Natron since its discovery has prompted the Tanzanian government to upgrade it to the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance in the year 2001.READ ALSO: What did Sinatra think of Nat King? What lake turns animals into stone? But sometimes the lake also becomes inhospitable to these flamingos when the alkalinity of the water increases and if they come in direct contact with the water in that period. The phenomenon of gathering flamingos in large numbers is often referred to as the “pink parade” by biologists. Hence, lesser flamingos have a pinkish hue in their body. It is also said that Spirulina, blue-green algae with red pigments present in this lake, passes on their pigments to these flamingos that feed on these algae and raise their young ones there. ![]() The flamingos’ nests are built on small islands, which form in the lake during the dry season. The lake being shallow is an ideal breeding ground for more than 2 million Lesser Flamingos (Phoenicopterus minor). Moreover, the lake derives its vermillion shade of red and pink from a few species of halophiles and thermophiles that are an integral part of this lake. The alkaline tilapia, a very rare fish, lives along the edges of the hot spring inlets. In spite of its deadly nature, the lake is known to be hospitable to a few of the world’s endemic species.
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