The deep red colour of the Lake Natron waters is due to the salt loving organisms and algae living in the water.Photographer Nick Brandt captured amazing stone-like images of local wildlife that was calcified by the high PH levels in the lake in 2003.There are only a few upmarket and budget campsites for guests staying in this area.If you travel to Lake Natron in northern Tanzania we suggest avoiding a swim. That's because the lake is capable of turning animals and humans into stone. The lake has an alkalinity level between pH 9 and pH 10.5 and can reach temperatures of 60 ☌. The only species to survive int he lake are alkaline tilapia ( Alcolapia alcalica) - an extremophile fish that has adapted to the lakes treacherous conditions. Lake Natron is a hypersaline and highly alkaline lake located in the eastern section of the volatile East African Rift. The lakes name was selected because of natron, a naturally occurring compound made mainly of sodium carbonate and a small amount of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). Tanzania has no less than four alkaline lakes, but Lake Natron is the most famous.

This shallow but wide lake is just three metres deep but 22km wide. Lake Natron Volcano neighbour The East African Rift Valley lies in a region. It’s fed by the Southern Ewaso Ng’iro River in Kenya. The colour is caused by microscopic bacteria that thrive in the salty water. Colored bodies of water like Lake Hillier, Lake Pukaki, Lake Retba, Laguna Colorada, and Blood Falls can be pink, red, neon green, cyan blue, and even rainbow. The lakes conditions were formed with the help of volcanic ash which accumulated from the Great Rift valley.Īs animals swoop or jump into the water they become calcified and die. No one knows for certain exactly how they die, but it appears that the extreme reflective nature of the lake's surface confuses them, and like birds crashing into plate glass windows, they crash into the lake.' Speaking to NewScientist the photographer explains: Photographer Nick Brandt recently visited the area and took photographs of animals who have died after coming in contact with water at Lake Natron.

While several photographs are making the rounds, the lake is actually full of animal carcasses.

Here are several more photographs from Brandt's work at Lake Natron: Essentially when birds and other creatures fall or swoop into Lake Natron they become pickled and therefore they do not decompose. What do you think of Lake Natron and its involuntary animal museum.

How to survive lake natron