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.
Instead, the lake's high sodium carbonate content acts as a preservative for the animals unfortunate enough to die in its waters. Lake Natron in fact contains a thriving ecosystem of freshwater wetlands and salt marshes, home to the animals pictured in Brandt's photography. Lake Natron birds common ostrich marabou stork kori bustard (Africas largest flying bird) secretary bird (top-heavy bird of prey) bateleur (orange-beaked. 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. Tanzania alkaline Lake 'Lake Natron' which is alkaline in anture and responsible for turn many birds and animals to stone through chemical inbalance water. 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. “Reanimated, alive again in death.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. The concentration of salt and some other minerals present here are high due to evaporation which is undergone for escaping the water that cannot be flowed out. “I took these creatures as I found them on the shoreline, and then placed them in ‘living’ positions, bringing them back to ‘life’, as it were,” Brandt said. Natron lake which is saline can turn animals into stone and this phenomenon is real and natural. It’s that same salt that mummifies the creatures and preserves them into the calcified, statue-like figures that Brandt stumbled upon on the edge of the lake. “So things that get caught in the lake do die because they just get covered in salt very quickly.” “If you imagine a bird getting water on its feathers it would very quickly be too heavy to fly,” said Harper. It is very, very hot, so water evaporates very quickly, leaving only the crust of salt on the animal. It’s so caustic that only one type of fish – Tilapia grahami – and certain bacteria can actually live in it.īut it’s the temperature of the air around the lake that seals the fate of these animals. During the dry season the lake shrinks dramatically and turns a very vivid red colour, due to the algae and (I think) very small shrimp in the lake.
But when they try to land, or even worse, fall in, they become coated with water that has an extremely high concentration of sodium carbonate, a salt-like mineral.
0 kommentar(er)
