The caustic nature of the mud around the lake deters predators, and there are hot springs here which can be enjoyed by human visitors. Saline, with a deep red colour in the dry season, this is a breeding area for 2.5 million lesser flamingos, which thrive on bacteria that are a result of the salinity of the water. Lake Natron is another Rift Valley Lake, alongside other notable lakes including Lake Kivu in Rwanda, Lake Nyassa in Malawi and Lake Turkana, also in Kenya. The plains are ideal for exploring on walking safaris, and activities offered elsewhere in the area include game drives, night drives, river tubing and excursions to Lake Natron. The land within the conservancy varies from arid salt savannah plains to lush swamp and riverine forest. With a rich biodiversity, the conservancy has in abundance amongst many other animals, lion, buffalo, wild dog, elephant, golden jackal and honey badgers. While this lake remains deadly to most, it is still a vital ecosystem.Shompole is a Conservancy which has been set aside for the wildlife by banning cattle and people from freely roaming and using the area. The proposed construction of a hydroelectric plant on the Ewaso Ng’iro River and a soda ash plant on its shores threatens the lake’s salinity and the flamingos. Despite its dark colour in this image, Lake Natron is often bright red owing to. If they spent any longer in the lake, they would have died.Ĭurrently, Lake Natron is under threat. Lake Natron is around 60 km long and is fed mainly by the Ewaso Ngiro River. It burned their eyes and skin, but they managed to drag themselves ashore. Everyone survived the crash but they were in the water unprotected. In 2007, a helicopter carrying a group of wildlife videographers wishing to get footage of the flamingos crashed into the lake. People have occasionally survived the lake’s potency. Lake Natron would have saved pharaonic embalmers a lot of work. The ancient Egyptians used sodium carbonate and bicarbonate in the mummification process. Photo: Shutterstockįor most humans, the lake’s qualities are more suitable for the dead than the living. The lake doesn’t quite have that instant effect. The graphically eerie positions looked like the finger of Medusa had really touched them. Wildlife photographer Nick Brandt made headlines in 2013 by staging photos of the mummified remains of the poor creatures around Lake Natron. They drown in the toxic potion, and their outsides and insides calcify.
The mirror-like surface tricks them into diving into the red waters for food. Some alkaline tilapia (a member of the cichlid family) can sustain themselves in the cooler parts of the lake.īut to some wildlife, especially birds, Lake Natron can be a death trap. Somehow, a few species of fish, invertebrates, and algae manage to live in the lake. The lake’s salt crust changes colour from. Acidic rain sometimes reduces this value, but wet weather is erratic in the region. This type of lake is known as a soda lake, as its water has an extremely alkaline pH of between 9 and 10.5. In Lake Natron, their pigment paints the water a striking red. Natron consists mainly of sodium carbonate, a salt that dissolves in the water to make it strongly alkaline. Generally, cyanobacteria carry different pigments. The lake’s salinity has welcomed salt-consuming, halophilic microorganisms called cyanobacteria, which need photosynthesis to survive. Lake Natron’s deceptively glassy surface. Its average alkalinity is 10.5, its pH surpasses 12, and its water temperature ranges from 40˚ to 60˚C. This concentrated the trona (sodium sesquicarbonate dihydrate) and natron (hydrated sodium carbonate) in the leftover water, creating a highly toxic brine. Since the lake had no outflow and received irregular rainfall, it endured thousands of years of intense evaporation from the heat.
During the Pleistocene period, a rare type of lava rich in sodium and potassium carbonates ran down the slopes of the Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano and into the lake. It’s fed by the Southern Ewaso Ng’iro River in Kenya. This shallow but wide lake is just three metres deep but 22km wide. Tanzania has no less than four alkaline lakes, but Lake Natron is the most famous. Lake Natron is a hypersaline and highly alkaline lake located in the eastern section of the volatile East African Rift. In North Tanzania, a unique inland lake turns wildlife to stone.
That’s a legend, but a natural wonder in Africa today does just that. We all know about the Greek monster Medusa, whose deadly gaze turned men to stone.
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