Sodium carbonate was once used in Egyptian mummification processes for this very reason.įurther detail about the photos can be found in Brandt’s book “Across the Ravaged Land” published in 2013. He discovered several stone birds and other unlucky animals in the. Instead, the lake’s high sodium carbonate content acts as a preservative for the animals unfortunate enough to die in its waters. In 2013, wildlife photographer Nick Brandt was one of the first to document this phenomenon. tanzanias alkaline lake natron has high ph level nearly ammonia transforming animals calcified statues friend visiting lakes. Lake Natron in fact contains a thriving ecosystem of freshwater wetlands and salt marshes, home to the animals pictured in Brandt’s photography. Tanzanias alkaline Lake Natron has such a high concentration of natron that its pH level is nearly as high as ammonia, transforming animals into calcified statues. The lake’s alkalinity comes from the minerals flowing into the lake from the hills surrounding it, particularly sodium carbonate.īut contrary to the clickbait headlines, Lake Natron doesn’t instantly kill the creatures that regularly come into contact with it. Lake Natron is indeed hostile to wildlife that hasn’t adapted to its highly alkaline water, which at a pH of 10.5 would burn the skin and eyes of any human foolhardy enough to take a swim. It in no way affected humans so no practices were. It is around 60 km long and is fed mainly by the. The lake if full of natron (hence the name) and the temperature rises very high, calcifying animals. Lake Natron is a salt lake located in northern Tanzania, close to the Kenyan border, in the eastern branch of Africa’s Great Rift Valley. Lake Natron is home to a thriving ecosystem, and its waters’ alkalinity preserves the remains of animals that die in or near it.įor around a decade now, striking images of calcified animal remains on Lake Natron in Tanzania taken by the photographer Nick Brandt have circulated through social media, often featuring alongside eye-grabbing headlines describing it as a lake that turns living animals to stone. Its shores are littered with the calcified corpses of a variety of birds and bats that had met their untimely demise after crashing into the deadly lake.
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