The lake’s unique chemical makeup coats the carcasses in layers of salt, sodium carbonates, and sodium bicarbonates, causing the animals to become petrified sculptures over time, a remarkable. The statues appear to be very lifelike and wonderful.
This is the world’s fourth-largest structure. The Empire State Building has a height of 443 metres. So, just to give you an idea, here’s a contrast. The animals are all arranged in poses by the photographer. The calcified statues of numerous birds and other creatures are abundant in Lake Natron. It contains magmatic limestone that has been created deep inside the Earth, poured out in runny lava flows, and blasted into the air to form ash clouds 10 miles high. When salt islands form in the lake, lesser flamingos take the opportunity to nest – but it is a risky business, as this calcified bird (top) illustrates.
"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." Welcome to a short, captivating glance at Lake Natron in Tanzania This unique body of water has an eerie ability - turning animals into statues. "I could not help but photograph them," he says. Photographer Nick Brandt, who has a long association with east Africa – he directed the video for Michael Jackson's Earth Song there in 1995 – took a detour from his usual work when he discovered perfectly preserved birds and bats on the shoreline. Animals that become immersed in the water die and are calcified. Here, this has come from volcanic ash, accumulated from the Great Rift valley. The lake takes its name from natron, a naturally occurring compound made mainly of sodium carbonate, with a bit of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) thrown in. Temperatures in the lake can reach 60 ☌, and its alkalinity is between pH 9 and pH 10.5. It sits in Northern Tanzania, close to the Kenyan border, and is fed by the Southern Ewaso Ng’iro River and mineral-rich hot springs. Unless you are an alkaline tilapia ( Alcolapia alcalica ) – an extremophile fish adapted to the harsh conditions – it is not the best place to live. The lake itself is extremely salty and alkaline. Perhaps the staff of New Scientist will see it when our time comes but, until then, Lake Natron in northern Tanzania does a pretty good job of illustrating Dante's vision. ACCORDING to Dante, the Styx is not just a river but a vast, deathly swamp filling the entire fifth circle of hell.
0 kommentar(er)
