“No one knows for sure 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. “I could not help but photograph them,” Brandt told ‘New Scientist’. What’s interesting is that a few brave flamingos live near the lake, but none of them dare go near it.īrandt’s pictures are pretty fascinating. (Normal alkalinity is, like, you know, pH2.) As a result, if you want to take a dip in Lake Natron, you would immediately die and become calcified. This makes the alkalinity of the lake between a pH9 and a pH10.5. Natron is made up of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate.

(Alkalinity is the capacity for water to neutralize acid.) Lake Natron gets its name from the compound, natron. How does this lake calcify animals? Well, because of volcanic ash that collected from the Great Rift Valley, the lake has a high alkalinity. Photographer Nick Brandt has created a new photo series that includes the bodies of animals that were calcified by Lake Natron in northern Tanzania.

Animals on Lake Natron have literally been turning to stone. Brandt discovered the remains of flamingos and other animals with chalky sodium carbonate deposits outlining their bodies in sharp relief. Unless Medusa is roaming the lakes of northern Tanzania, there has to be some reason for this phenomena. Does Lake Natron really calcified animals The alkaline water in Lake Natron has a pH as high as 10.5 and is so caustic it can burn the skin and eyes of animals that aren’t adapted to it.

Lake natron calcified animals