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What if you jumped into lake Natron what would you do?

Have you ever heard of Medusa? The snake-haired greekmonster who turns people to stone with a single glance?

By Nora ArianaPublished 10 months ago 3 min read


She might simply be a fiction, but there is a place wherenotorious Lake Natron, Why is the water in Lake Natron so hazardous? What species of animals abound there? If you fell in, could you survive?


There is a place so dangerous that it could truly turn you to stone: the fabled Lake Natron. Have you heard of Medusa, the mythical Greek monster with snake-hair who can turn people to stone with a single glance? She may simply be a myth. What makes Lake Natron's water so hazardous? What animals inhabit it? Could you survive if you fell in? These are the questions that need to be answered.

what would occur if you dove into Lake Natron?Before diving in, we need consider what Lake Natron is built of.This Tanzanian Lake, like the Dead Sea, doesn't drain into any seas or rivers, allowing it to take up all that salty, soupy desert rain.

Its proximity to the active volcano Doinyo Lengai, which spews a peculiar poison, makes it exceptionally deadly.

The perfect preservative in lake form is a type of lava rich in sodium and potassium carbonate called natural carbonatite, also known as Natron for short. This mixture of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate was once used in Egyptian mummification to create the perfect preservative.

In 2013, wildlife photographer Nick Brandt was one of the first to document this phenomenon. He discovered several stone birds and other unfortunate animals in the dry season when the water had receded. He theorized that since the lake has an alkalinity of 10.5 close to that of ammonia this gives the lake its rosy hue any birds who happen to take a dive and don't make it out become calcified in a hardened stone like husk talk about killing two birds with one stone in 2013

is so mirror-like and reflective that the birds must have flown right into it as if it were a large glass door, but despite the fact that so many birds perish in Lake Natron, one species is flourishing. It turns out that the lake's toxic waters offer a safe haven from predators, making it the ideal flamingos flocking grounds. If flamingos can handle it, then why couldn't we?

It is not that easy. Because of their tough skin and scaly legs, which prevent birds from drinking fresh water from nearby Springs or geysers at the edges of the lake, flamingos must live in salty lakes. If they are desperate enough, however, they can even filter saltwater using special glands in their nasal cavities, and to top it all off, their strong stomachs enable them to feed on the toxic algae found throughout the lake. This makes Lake Natron the ideal place to raise and protect flamingos.

I wouldn't plan on performing any fancy dives or cannonballs because the water is shallow and full of sharp, salty structures; although you wouldn't turn to stone right away, if you drown and stay under water, your entire body would harden and be preserved; if people found you hundreds of years later, you might still have your hair and organs intact, ya still lookin' spiffy after all. The water is sixty degrees, which is hot enough to cause third-degree burns in

A group of wildlife videographers fell into Lake Natron toxicity in 2007 when their helicopter crashed. The pilot suffered a broken leg and another passenger had a broken hip, but miraculously one of the passengers managed to struggle to shore and make it to safety. Your eyes or any open wounds would sting like crazy because of all that salt, so I'd put on some goggles if I were you.

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Nora Ariana

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Comments (2)

  • Margaret Brennan10 months ago

    kind of reminds me of Lake Ronkonkoma in Ronkonkoma NY (Long Island). Every year for the past 200 years (or more), a young male drowns, the body never to be found. Ever hear that old song "Running Bear"? Based on a true story about the lake. What the song doesn't mention is that the maiden's father's medicine man put a curse on the lake to take a young male teen each year until the curse was satisfied (for however long it takes). I lived about ten miles away and spend many Saturdays there and saw many search parties looking for the missing teens.

  • Alex H Mittelman 10 months ago

    Great work! Very good!

Nora ArianaWritten by Nora Ariana

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