11/9/2022 0 Comments Lake natron turns animals to stone![]() When salinity increases, so do cyanobacteria, and the lake can also support more nests. The lake is the only regular breeding area in East Africa for the 2.5 million lesser flamingoes, whose status of "near threatened" results from their dependence on this one location. In the slightly less salty water around its margins, some fish can also survive. Nonetheless, Lake Natron is home to some endemic algae, invertebrates, and birds. ![]() Most animals find the lake's high temperature (up to 60 ☌ ) and its high and variable salt content inhospitable. Salt marshes and freshwater wetlands around the edges of the lake do support a variety of plants. The alkali salt crust on the surface of the lake is also often coloured red or pink by the salt-loving microorganisms that live there. The red accessory photosynthesizing pigment in the cyanobacteria produces the deep reds of the open water of the lake and the orange colours of the shallow parts of the lake. Such halophile organisms include some cyanobacteria that make their own food with photosynthesis as plants do. As water evaporates during the dry season, salinity levels increase to the point that salt-loving microorganisms begin to thrive. The colour of the lake is characteristic of those where very high evaporation rates occur. įlora are plants in their natural environment. This has allowed the lake to concentrate into a caustic alkaline brine. The lavas have significant amounts of carbonate but very low calcium and magnesium levels. The surrounding bedrock is composed of alkaline, sodium-dominated trachyte lavas that were laid down during the Pleistocene period. The alkalinity of the lake can reach a pH of greater than 12. High levels of evaporation have left behind natron ( sodium carbonate decahydrate) and trona (sodium sesquicarbonate dihydrate). Temperatures at the lake are frequently above 40 ☌ (104 ☏). The surrounding area receives irregular seasonal rainfall, mainly between December and May totalling 800 millimetres (31 in) per year. The lake is a maximum of 57 kilometres (35 mi) long and 22 kilometres (14 mi) wide. It is quite shallow, less than three metres (9.8 ft) deep, and varies in width depending on its water level. The lake is fed principally by the Southern Ewaso Ng'iro River, which rises in central Kenya, and by mineral-rich hot springs. Numerous near-white salt-crust "rafts" pepper the shallowest parts of the lake (inset). Fault scarps and the Gelai Volcano can also be seen. “Lake That Turns Animals To Stone? Not Quite”.Cash Acme Plumbing Products | Thermostatic Regulating Pressure Valves. “The Lost World of Socotra Archipelago”.“This Alkaline African Lake Turns Animals Into Stone”.Subscribe to What-If on YouTube or follow the show on Facebook Watch. But if you’re craving something even more extreme, how about surviving a limnic eruption on your next swim? Think you could handle it? As for our flamingo friends, this just goes to show how the harshest environments can be a sanctuary for some animals. They quickly built stretchers and carried the injured to land in the nick of time.Įven though you could survive Lake Natron’s waters, I’d stick to a swimming pool if I were you. Incredibly, one of the passengers managed to struggle to shore and alerted some of the Masai tribespeople nearby. The pilot suffered a broken leg, and another passenger had a broken hip. A group of wildlife videographers plunged Lake Natron’s toxicity when their helicopter crashed. In 2007, another kind of bird flew straight into this chemical cocktail. Turns out, the lake’s toxic waters provide a safe haven from predators, making it perfect flamingo flocking grounds. ![]() Despite so many birds dying in Lake Natron, there is a particular species flourishing. Kind of like that one time in the office. He theorized, since the lake is so mirror-like and reflective, the birds must have flown right into it. He discovered several stone birds and other unlucky animals in the dry season when the water had receded. In 2013, wildlife photographer Nick Brandt was one of the first to document this phenomenon. Talk about killing two birds with one stone! Any birds that happen to take a dive and don’t make it out become calcified in a hardened, stonelike husk. The whole chemical composition is extremely alkaline, with pH levels of 10.5 close to matching ammonia (NH3). Releasing into the water, this mix of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate were key ingredients once used in Egyptian mummification, creating the perfect preservative in lake form. The volcano spews a rare kind of lava rich in sodium (Na) and potassium carbonate (K2CO3), called Natrocarbonatite, or Natron for short. ![]()
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