Bright-red
# The Lake of Death
The lake that turns animals into stone is called Lake Natron and is located in northern Tanzania, in the African Rift Valley at about 600m altitude.
Water from the Tanzania's Lake Natron are extremely and deadly as they are most beautiful and attractive for swimming and enjoying though you are advised to be very careful so that you may not drink the water from the lake.
As beautiful as this lake appears, it is as dangerous. It turns animals to stone but this is not as a result of any mystery or folktale. It is as a result of the salt and high alkaline ph present in the water. When animals touch the water, calcification occurs and the animal dies yet appears like a stone.
What happens if you jump into Lake Natron? Well, it won't be fun swimming into this lake, thanks to the high temperature and alkalinity. It will burn you for sure, but won't turn you into a mummy instantly. However, if you stay longer, your body is likely to be hardened and preserved.
The salty water in Lake Natron has a pH of over 10.5 and reports said that the water is so caustic that it can burn the skin and eyes of animals that aren't adapted to it. The lake gets its blood-red tone from Bacteria, which can tolerate harsh conditions.
Lake Natron is a salt or alkaline lake located in north Ngorongoro District of Arusha Region in Tanzania. It is in the Gregory Rift, which is the eastern branch of the East African Rift. The lake is within the Lake Natron Basin, a Ramsar Site wetland of international significance.
How can flamingos survive in Lake Natron? Flamingos flourish in this water as there are no natural predators, thus making the breeding process less stressful. They actually feed on cyanobacteria, known as spirulina within the lake which gives the lake its pinkish colour.
The lake is quite shallow, less than three meters deep, and varies in width depending on its water level.
A volcano-fed lake
Because the water coming into the lake leaches through the volcanic material of nearby Mt Ol Doinyo Lengai, the lake's water is highly alkaline.
Fed by natural springs from the surrounding volcanoes, the lake's waters are rich with a mixture of salts and minerals, called natron. Hence the name. These minerals are revealed when the water level decreases in the dry season and form a crimson crust over the lake's surface.
Lake Natron is fifty kilometres in length and about twenty-five in width. 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.
No swimming. No camping. No fires or cooking grills.
Depending on rainfall, its alkalinity can approach that of straight ammonia, and when the lake is flooded with water that has heated underground, its temperature can reach a scalding 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit).
Stones occur in several parts of the human body—kidneys, bladder, prostate gland, gallbladder, salivary glands, pancreas. Although not regarded as life-threatening, they can be a source of considerable pain and discomfort.
Flamingos get their pink color from their food.
Carotenoids give carrots their orange color or turn ripe tomatoes red. They are also found in the microscopic algae that brine shrimp eat. As a flamingo dines on algae and brine shrimp, its body metabolizes the pigments — turning its feathers pink.
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. Flocks of flamingos, other birds and tilapia fish all call the lake their home.
Flamingos are capable of drinking water at temperatures that approach the boiling point. Flamingos excrete salt through salt glands in the nostrils.
If Lake Natron, in Africa's Great Rift Valley had a color theme, it would be pink. The alkali salt crust on the surface of the lake is often colored red or pink by the salt-loving microorganisms that live there. And the lake is the only breeding area for the 2.5 million Lesser Flamingoes that live in the valley.
The red comes from a pigment called phycoerythrin that helps Planktothrix rubescens gather what little light penetrates below the ice. It can also control its buoyancy and will rise to the light when an ice hole is drilled.
Whiting events occur in lakes with very high concentrations of calcium carbonate (hard water lakes) during early summer. As the calcium carbonate precipitates, it forms chalky white clouds underwater and rains calcium carbonate on the lake bottom.
Fossils are formed when animal or plant remains have been buried for millions of years. During this time, the remains change as minerals from the surrounding rock replace the minerals that make up the animal or plant. These changes happen so slowly that the remains keep their original shape.
The Medusa Lake is a slightly brackish lake on the Ingrid Christensen Coast of the Princess Elizabeth Land in East Antarctica. In the Vestfold Hills, the lake is located east of the Ephyra Lake, with which the lake is temporarily connected via a 1 m wide and 0.5 m deep canal.