![]() ![]() The series of eerie photos present the deadly power of Lake Natron in a truly unique way. Relatives (13) decorated them and buried them under. ![]() Mummies were then put into coffins, made of wood or stone. (11) Inner organs, including the brain, were removed the heart was usually left in the body. It extracted moisture from the skin and flesh. Photographer Nick Brandt has captured pictures of mummified birds and bats that met their fate in the toxic waters of Lake Natron. substance called natron was used to cover the bodies. It’s often said that the lake turns these unfortunate animals into stones, but in reality, it’s more like a mummification process. Some speculate that the extreme reflective nature of the lake’s surface confuses them, just like a large glass window, causing them to crash into the lake.īecause of the lake’s unique characteristics, animals that die in the water are calcified. That said, no one actually knows for certain exactly how the animals die. After 40 days, the bodies were wrapped in entirety. If a creature drinks from the water, it will most probably end up dead as a result of the tremendous damage to the cells, nervous system, and livers. Sometimes embalmers removed organs and dried them with natron. The chemicals in the water burn the skin and the eyes. The alkaline waters of Lake Natron can reach a pH level (a measure of how acidic water is – it ranges from 0 to 14) as high as 12, while life generally prefers a pH level closer to 7. Although the planned operation will be located more than 40 miles away, drawing the soda ash in through pipelines, conservationists worry it could still upset the natural water cycle and breeding grounds. For now though, life prevails-even in a lake that kills almost everything it touches.The red waters can even be seen from space! Image credit: NASA Earth ObservatoryĮven though the colorful surface can be very charming, it’s a fatal trap for most animals. The Tanzanian government has reinstated plans to begin mining the lake for soda ash, used for making chemicals, glass and detergents. This unique ecosystem may soon be under pressure. “All the lagoons join when the lake is high and fish must retreat to their stream refuges or die.” Otherwise, no fish are able to survive in the naturally toxic lake. Three species of tilapia thrive there part-time. “Fish have a refuge in the streams and can expand into the lagoons at times when the lake is low and the lagoons are separate,” Harper said. Some fish, too, have had limited success vacationing at the lake-lower salinity lagoons form on the outer edges from hot springs flowing into Lake Natron. "Humans cannot, and would die if their legs were exposed for any length of time.” So far this year, water levels have been too high for the flamingos to nest. “Flamingos have evolved very leathery skin on their legs so they can tolerate the salt water," David Harper, a limnology professor at the University of Leicester, tells. When the water hits the right level, the baby birds are kept safe from predators by a caustic moat. Three-quarters of the world’s lesser flamingos fly over from other saline lakes in the Rift Valley and nest on salt crystal islands that appear when the water is at a very specific level-too high and the birds can’t build their nests, too low and predators can waltz across the lake bed and attack. Once every three or four years, when conditions are right, the lake is covered with the pink birds as they stop flight to breed. The unique color comes from cyanobacteria that photosynthesize into bright red and orange hues as the water evaporates and salinity rises before that process occurs during the dry season, the lake is blue.īut one species actually makes life among all that death-flamingos. The high caustic level can cause great damage, burn the skin and eyes of animals. The lake waters have an extremely alkaline pH, which is between 9 and 10.5. It was important in their religion to preserve the dead body in as life-like a manner as. According to the American television program Discovery News, this has a scientific explanation. Using special processes, the Egyptians removed all moisture from the body, leaving only a dried form that would not easily decay. 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 methods of embalming, or treating the dead body, that the ancient Egyptians used is called mummification. The lake's landscape is surreal and deadly-and made even more bizarre by the fact that it's the place where nearly 75 percent of the world's lesser flamingos are born. Bats, swallows and more are chemically preserved in the pose in which they perished deposits of sodium carbonate in the water (a chemical once used in Egyptian mummification) seal the creatures in their watery tomb. At the base of a mountain in Tanzania’s Gregory Rift, Lake Natron burns bright red, surrounded by the calcified remains of animals that were unfortunate enough to fall into the salty water. ![]()
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