Natron has an excellent drying and anti-bacterial property that helps to preserve dead bodies by drying out all the moisture from its body and also by preventing microorganisms from feeding on it.īut that doesn’t mean that whenever any living organisms fall in the lake, it gets perished and transforms into stone immediately as some of the sources present it.

Natron is a mineral salt that ancient Egyptians used for mummification. The lake has a high level of natron present in it, after which it has been named. The secret unveiled Image Credit: Live Science Thus, making the lake a storehouse of minerals, alkalinity, and high temperature that makes it unsuitable for life to prosper. The lavas too contain an appreciable amount of carbonate and less amount of calcium and magnesium levels. Volcanic ashes from the Great Rift Valley also gets collected in the basin, making it hostile to living organisms. This makes the alkalinity to reach up to a pH greater than 12. Hence, it can only evaporate at extreme temperature leaving behind the salt content, that is, Natron (sodium carbonate decahydrate) and Trona (sodium sesquicarbonate dihydrate). But the twist comes right here, the rivers are saline in nature, and the lake has no option to drain out to sea or larger rivers. Located in a dry climate, the area has scanty to no rainfall throughout the year and is only watered by few rivers and hot springs. Lake Natron is known to be one of the most saline caustic alkaline lakes in the world. As a shallow lake in an extremely hot climate, the temperature here rises to approximately 106-degree Fahrenheit. The lake is quite shallow less than five meters and the width depends on the water content. The lake is typically red to pink in colour with a scarlet crust due to high mineral content and hot springs.

Lake Natron has been acknowledged as the hell on Earth by many ecologists due to its deadly nature. The pink parade in the barren wetland What makes it mysteriously fatal?

What happens if you touch lake natron