Have you ever heard of a lake whose water turns animals to stone just like how thry would turn to stone if they looked Medusa in the eye? I know this sounds like a lie, but surprisingly, it is true, though this lake doesn’t turn animals exactly into stone but yeah you will get the point after looking at a few pictures that are right here (trigger warning).
So, where is this magic, evil, cool lake? Well, this lake is located in a small country in Africa called Tanzania and is known as the Lake Natron or as I call it the Devil Lake. Now, let’s see how the magic lake pulls off its magic trick. The magic lies in the concoction of which the water is composed of. The water here is loaded with chemicals that can burn one’s skin as soon as they touch it and If you are interested in the complex terminology, the water here has a pH as high as 10.5, making it caustic and thereby burns the skin of those not adapted to it. But how does it turn to stone? This is just the first stage of animals turning to stone, there’s still a stage 2 left to go.
Moving on, the second stage is when these burnt animals get a coating just like mummies got in ancient Egypt, talking in scientific terms, the sodium carbonate formed because of the alkalinity of the water get coated on these animals as a way to preserve them. This is called calcification or mummification and this is why the animals seem to have turned to stone.
To wrap this up, it seems like these animals turn into stone but they really don’t, just like magician tricks us into thinking it is magic even though it's something else, this lake tricks us into believing that its water can turn animals to stone but it's actually something else.
Commentaires