calcified animals from lake natron in tanzania

Liutkus-Pierce has seen other 'petrified' animals while collecting fossils near the lake. 'You'll want to wash it off because it will irritate your skin.' 'You might feel a little bit of a tingle,' she told ABC News. (A pH of 7 is neutral and 14 is the most alkaline.) Cynthia Liutkus-Pierce, an associate professor of geology at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, said that a person won't immediately burn their hand after being splashed by Lake Natron's waters. Lake Natron itself is an alkaline environment, with a pH between 9 and 10. He discovered the preserved wildlife along the shore of Lake Natron and posed them for his photographs.īut why do they look like stone and not roadkill? 'I could not help but photograph them,' said Brandt in an interview with New Scientist. A series of eerie black and white photographs taken by Nick Brandt show birds on Lake Natron in Tanzania, as if they had looked into Medusa's eyes. 2, 2013— - The Dead Sea may be one of the saltiest lakes on earth, but at least it doesn't turn animals to husks of their former selves. 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.Oct. 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.

Calcified animals from lake natron in tanzania