“You’d literally get, say, a hundred finches washed ashore in a 50-yard stretch. I saw entire flocks of dead birds all washed ashore together, lemming-like,” he says. During dry season, Brandt discovered, when the water recedes, the birds’ desiccated, chemically-preserved carcasses wash up along the coastline. The flamingos of lake Natron feed with the lakes Spirulina algae. Brandt theorizes that the highly-reflective, chemical dense waters act like a glass door, fooling birds into thinking they’re flying through empty space (not long ago, a helicopter pilot tragically fell victim to the same illusion, and his crashed aircraft was rapidly corroded by the lake’s waters). The photographs appear in Brandt’s new book, “Across the Ravaged Land.A swallow © Nick Brandt 2013, Courtesy of Hasted Kraeutler Gallery, NYĪs you might expect, few creatures live in the harsh waters, which can reach 140 degrees Fahreinheit-they’re home to just a single fish species ( Alcolapia latilabris), some algae and a colony of flamingos that feeds on the algae and breeds on the shore.įrequently, though, migrating birds crash into the lake’s surface. Confused, the birds crash into the lake as if it is a plate glass window. Photographer Nick Brandt recovered these animals from the shores of the lake and posed them to look as they would have in life. According to Brandt's new book, Across the Ravaged Land, Lake Natron in northern Tanzania is a death trap for birds and bats who appear to slam into it due to its surface's extremely reflective nature. The lava’s sodium dissolves in the water and essentially brines animals’ carcasses like salt pork.
“It’s an extremely fascinating place, and a really good place for getting wonderfully preserved animals,” Cerling said. You could make a reasonably accurate replica of Lake Natron in your kitchen by dissolving Arm & Hammer in a bowl of water, said Thure Cerling, a geochemist at the University of Utah who has worked in the region for 40 years. Lake Natron is a hypersaline and highly alkaline lake located in the eastern section of the volatile East African Rift.
It spews a lava containing sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda. The lake’s chemistry is a result of Ol Doinyo Lengai, the world’s only active volcano of its kind. It is in the Gregory Rift, which is the eastern. Lake Natron in Tanzania is one of the most serene lakes in Africa, but it's also the source of some of the most phantasmagorical photographs ever captured. Algae sometimes give the water a pinkish tinge, but not much else lives there, except for a few Masai herders and flamingos that use the water as a moat to protect their nests from predators. Lake Natron is a salt or alkaline lake located in north Ngorongoro District of Arusha Region in Tanzania.
The lake itself is too salty and alkaline to drink from.
Near an unusual volcano in Tanzania is a shallow lake that preserves the bodies of dead animals, encrusting them in salt.
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