However, like bathers on a shark-infested beach, even these seasonal visitors sometimes fall victim to the deadly water.Įven seasonal visitors, such as this lesser flamingo Phoenicopterus minor, still fall victim to the caustic water. The flamingos take advantage of the disappearing islands, constructing their mud-tower nests and breeding, all the while feeding on invertebrates in the more saline areas of the lake. The lake’s high alkalinity can reach a pH of more than 12 and the surrounding bedrock is composed of alkaline, sodium-dominated trachyte lavas that were laid down during the Pleistocene period. When islands form on the caustic lake, they attract scores of both lesser and greater flamingos. According to the Tanzania Tourist Board, Lake Natron is a soda lake where high levels of evaporation have left behind the minerals natron and trona. Photographer Nick Brandt captured several spectacular shots of several calcified creatures who fell victim to the illusion of a crystalline, placid lake, only to emerge from the water and become preserved in stone. Lake Natron is a salt lake located in northern Tanzania, close to the. The water is so deadly to those not used to it that anything that merely touches it is calcified. Its shores are littered with the calcified corpses of a variety of birds and bats.

If there was ever a little slice of Hell on Earth, Lake Natron would be a contender.Ī calcified African fish eagle Haliaeetus vocifer perchesĪbove deadly Lake Natron. The water temperature can reach well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and supports only those species which are evolved enough to handle such a deadly environment. Lake Natron, in northern Tanzania, is an alkaline lake whose water has the pH of household ammonia.

Calcifying lake natron tanzania