MicroFactzzz#0158 · 🌍 Strange Earth
This African Lake Can Naturally 'Turn' Dead Animals to Stone
The highly alkaline waters of Tanzania's Lake Natron preserve animal bodies in a way that looks like natural mummification.
Lake Natron in Tanzania has water with an extraordinarily high pH, reaching up to 10.5 — alkalinity close to that of ammonia — caused by heavy concentrations of sodium carbonate leached from the surrounding volcanic rock.
Animals that drown or die in contact with this water can end up naturally preserved by the mineral salts that settle onto their bodies — a process resembling mummification that locks the animal's shape into an almost fossil-like form.
It sounds made up. And yet photos of these naturally "petrified" birds and bats from around the lake have gone viral worldwide and become one of nature's more famous, unsettling images.
The mechanism: despite the extreme conditions, the lake is far from lifeless — specially adapted flamingos actually nest there precisely because the extreme alkalinity keeps most predators away.
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Krulicza Nora
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