Well, for those of you sticklers out there, this isn’t entirely true either. the amount of it that can stay dissolved in the water) is greater at higher pH. Still confused? Here’s a quick chemistry refresher. The characteristic warm temperatures and abundance of direct sunlight in this shallow lake may make sense at first glance, but what about that awful pH? Haven’t we been taught that life prefers a pH closer to 7? Well, not necessarily if you are a cyanobacterium that feeds on carbon dioxide. These salt-loving superphotosynthesizers also transfer their color to the millions of lesser flamingoes that feed on them and use the lake as their nesting ground.Īs it turns out, the conditions in Lake Natron make it one of the most productive environments, photosynthetically speaking. The predominant strains include species of Spirulina, Cyanospira, Synechococcus and Chroococcus.

At the producer trophic level, it supports several different species of cyanobacteria that give the lake its red color. While shallow Lake Natron is an extreme environment with a pH greater than 10 and water temperatures of more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit, it supports a thriving ecosystem. 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.Satellite imagery of Lake Natron with features labelled. 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.

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. 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.

Lake natron turns animals to stone