![]() ![]() Other volcanoes usually spew silicates, but the Ol Doinyo Lengai is the only one on the planet that spills "natrocarbonatites" as cool, runny, dark washes. It's a favorite among petrologists because it's the only one of its kind, Hannes Mattsson, a researcher at the Swiss Institute of Technology in Zurich, told NBC News. The culprit is Ol Doinyo Lengai, a million-year old volcano just south of Lake Natron. Nick Brandt / Courtesy of Hasted Kraeutler Gallery Also, the lake is the only breeding area for the 2.5 million Lesser Flamingoes that live in the valley. ![]() The alkali salt crust on the surface of the lake is often colored red or pink by the salt-loving microorganisms that live there. A calcified dove, from Nick Brandt's book Across The Ravaged Land, published by Abrams, New York. If Lake Natron, in Africa’s Great Rift Valley, had a color theme, it would be pink. Booked our trip to Lake Natron-Serengeti-Ngorongoro 3 months ago because we are very interested to explore the active volcano of Oldonyo Lengai. You may choose to schedule your tour of East Africa during the rainy or dry season. How did the lake get this hostile? The "salt" in it isn't the regular table variety harvested from seawater, but magmatic limestone that's been forged deep in the Earth, poured out in runny lava flows and blasted into the air to become ash clouds 10 miles high. The weather at Lake Natron is primarily hot and mostly dry, and the coolest months are June through August, but some guests find these temperatures tropically warm as well since Tanzania is located just south of the equator. Water levels fluctuate easily because it's so hot - when the levels drop, the corpses are left behind on the shores, coated in salt, exactly how Brandt found them. ![]() Small birds or bats that try and fail to cross the 12- by 30-mile lake fall in, as do insects like beetles and locusts. Flamingos are some of the lucky birds that can make the trip across the lake which is 30-miles wide at its longest point. Located 100km east of Serengeti, Lake Natron is a surprisingly remote and magical area of stupendous Rift Valley scenery, with guest accommodation in a. "If a body falls anywhere else it decomposes very quickly, but on the edge of the lake, it just gets encrusted in salt and stays forever," David Harper, an ecologist at the University of Leicester who has visited Lake Natron four times, told NBC News. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |