![]() Other volcanoes usually spew silicates, but the Ol Doinyo Lengai is the only one on the planet that spills "natrocarbonatites" as cool, runny, dark washes. The mineral was used during mummification ceremonies in ancient Egypt because it absorbs water and behaves as a drying agent. It's a favorite among petrologists because it's the only one of its kind, Hannes Mattsson, a researcher at the Swiss Institute of Technology in Zurich, told NBC News. have proved that natron played an important part in the mummification process. The culprit is Ol Doinyo Lengai, a million-year old volcano just south of Lake Natron. An iconographie representation of the so-called Lake of Fire from the. Nick Brandt / Courtesy of Hasted Kraeutler Gallery With high temperatures, the lake turns any animal that decides to take an unpretentious dip into stone. A calcified dove, from Nick Brandt's book Across The Ravaged Land, published by Abrams, New York. Lake Natron, situated in northern Tanzania, close to the Kenyan border, in the Great Rift Valley, is one of the most peaceful places in Africa.But appearances can be deceiving: its waters hold a fatal secret. How did the lake get this hostile? The "salt" in it isn't the regular table variety harvested from seawater, but magmatic limestone that's been forged deep in the Earth, poured out in runny lava flows and blasted into the air to become ash clouds 10 miles high. Water levels fluctuate easily because it's so hot - when the levels drop, the corpses are left behind on the shores, coated in salt, exactly how Brandt found them. ![]() Small birds or bats that try and fail to cross the 12- by 30-mile lake fall in, as do insects like beetles and locusts. Another identifier for it is that it is situated in the Gregory Rift which is itself part of the Eastern arm of the East African Rift caused by tectonic plate movement. It is found more specifically, in the Ngorongoro District of the Arusha Region in Tanzania. The body was then treated with natron (a carbonate salt collected from the edges of desert lakes) which acted. Lake Natron is an alkaline saltwater lake found in Tanzania. Nick Brandt / Courtesy of Hasted Kraeutler Gallery The most complicated mummification process. Flamingos are some of the lucky birds that can make the trip across the lake which is 30-miles wide at its longest point. "If a body falls anywhere else it decomposes very quickly, but on the edge of the lake, it just gets encrusted in salt and stays forever," David Harper, an ecologist at the University of Leicester who has visited Lake Natron four times, told NBC News. Part of its toxicity is caused by the Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano, located on the lake’s southern coast. As isolated as the lake is (it wasn't even discovered by Europeans until 1954), there are no protections in place for the lake or its threatened flamingo population.įollow Marc Lallanilla on Twitter and Google+. Lake Natron is a salt or alkaline lake on the northern border of Tanzania. WhatsApp Located in a remote region of Tanzania, in East Africa, Lake Natron is one of the most toxic places on Earth. The home, and breeding grounds it represents for flamingos, make it even more important to preserve it in all of its beauty. the eerie mummified corpses that Lake Natrons high-salinity waters produce. Lake Natron is a prime example of a natural wonder. The serenity of Lake Natron - and its flamingo population - are threatened by a proposed hydroelectric power plant on the Ewaso Ngiro River, the main river feeding the lake. Located in the African Rift Valley of Northern Tanzania, Lake Natron is a. As shallow lakes in a hot climate, their water temperatures can reach as high as 106 degrees Fahrenheit (41 degrees Celsius). Two years later, nearly 1,800 people and 3,000 livestock died after an explosion at Lake Nyos, also in Cameroon. Both are terminal lakes that do not drain out to any river or sea they are fed by hot springs and small rivers. A limnic eruption at Cameroon’s Lake Monoun killed 37 people in 1984. Lake Natron, lake in northern Tanzania on the border with Kenya, lying in the East African Rift System, 70 miles (113 km) northwest of Arusha. Nick gave the mummies the position of living animals and photographed. But appearances can be deceiving: its waters hold a fatal secret. They were literally mummified with sodium carbonate. Natron a naturally occurring mixture of sodium carbonate decahydrate found in dry lake beds in ancient. Lake Natron is one of two alkaline lakes in that area of East Africa the other is Lake Bahi. Lake Natron, situated in northern Tanzania, close to the Kenyan border, in the Great Rift Valley, is one of the most peaceful places in Africa. Next up: the all important dehydration of the corpse. The flamingos' nests are built on small islands that form in the lake during the dry season. During breeding season, more than 2 million lesser flamingos ( Phoenicopterus minor) use the shallow lake as their primary breeding ground in Africa.
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