“The notion of portraits of dead animals in the place where they once lived is what also drew me to photographing the creatures in the Calcified series,” Brandt explains. Only invertebrates, a few algae invertebrates and some fish that live near the edges of the lake can survive this environment. Flamingos sometime use the predator-free salt islands that sometimes form on the lake for nesting, but it’s a risky gamble, as the photos below clearly show. As soon as birds and bats plunge into the waters of lake Natron, the minerals start turning their flesh into stone and preserving them exactly as they were in their final moments. No animal can withstand this caustic environment and venturing into the acidic environment is usually fatal.
The lake’s alkalinity is similar to that of ammonia, with a pH between 9 and 10.5, and the temperature of the water can reach 60 ☌. It’s the same mineral the Egyptians used to preserve their mummies. Natron, which gives the lake its name, is a naturally occurring compound found in volcanic ash. He later found out something even more shocking – those were real animals calcified by the lake’s alkaline water. When photographer Nick Brandt first visited Lake Natron, in Northern Tanzania, he was shocked by the macabre animal statues he saw aligned across its shoreline. Live Science describes the dead animals as having “chalky sodium carbonate deposits outlining their bodies.Lethal Alkaline Lake in Africa Turns Animals into Stone Statues “A calcified flamingo, preserved by the highly basic waters of Tanzania’s Lake Natron and photographed by Nick Brandt,” reads National Geographic’s caption of one of the photos included in the Facebook post. The photographs included in the post were taken by photographer Nick Brandt in 2013, who collected the animal carcasses around the lake’s shoreline and posed them for the pictures, the outlet reported. The dead animals in the photos were not instantly turned to stone by the lake, but rather became calcified due to the characteristics of the lake, according to National Geographic. “Any animal which touches the lake turns into stone.” (RELATED: Does This Image Show A Heart-Shaped Pond In Zimbabwe?) “Natron Lake in Tanzania is the most (sic) deadliest place for animals,” reads text included in the image. The image shows what appears to be the petrified remains of two birds sitting on a body of water. An image shared on Facebook claims it turns any animal that touches it to stone. Lake Natron in Tanzania is a saltwater lake with a pH of 10.5 (nearly as high as that of ammonia) and temperatures up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
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