![]() ![]() 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. 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. The lake is quite shallow, measuring less than three metres in-depth, and its width changes depending on the water level. It is located at 36 ☎ longitudes and 2° 30 S latitudes in the Arusha District of northern Tanzania (near the Kenyan border). The culprit is Ol Doinyo Lengai, a million-year old volcano just south of Lake Natron. Lake Natron is 57 kilometres long and 22 kilometres wide at its widest point. Nick Brandt / Courtesy of Hasted Kraeutler Gallery This red tinge to the water can even be seen from space 6. A calcified dove, from Nick Brandt's book Across The Ravaged Land, published by Abrams, New York. Greek mythology describes Medusa as a horrifying creature who can turn anyone who looks at her into stone. The water of Lake Natron sometimes turns red (or orange-red) because of the algae that thrives in its hypersaline environment. 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. It is in Tanzania and is one of the most serene lakes in Africa, but its alkaline. 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. Approaching the shoreline of Lake Natron in Tanzania, photographer Nick Brandt faced an eerie sight: There, lying on the earth as still and stiff as statues. It is Lake Natron and not Lake Norton as spelt by you. 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. Flamingos are some of the lucky birds that can make the trip across the lake which is 30-miles wide at its longest point. Photographer Nick Brandt has captured a mesmerizing series of images at Lake Natron in Africa showing us what the grim reapers animal equivalents might. Why Well, for starters, parts of it sometimes turn red And we bet you’ve never seen a red lake before. "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. Reading time: 13 minutes Lake Natron, found in a dry, northern part of Tanzania, is like no other lake you’ve ever seen or heard about. ![]()
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