Page 27 - (DK) I Can’t Believe It! 2

STRANGE BUT TRUE! 25

Algae thrive in the hot
Red alert! shores, providing food
springs on the lake’s
for alkaline tilapia, a fish
adapted to live in this
The water
of Lake Natron extreme environment.
reaches scalding
temperatures
of more than
104°F (40°C).

Fed by hot springs, Lake Natron’s
waters are warm and rich in minerals.
These chemicals are so concentrated
that the lake is highly alkaline—with
a pH level of 10, it is the most caustic body
of water in the world (capable of burning
the eyes and skin of creatures that are
not adapted to it). The lake takes its name
from natron (hydrated sodium carbonate),
which is left as a salt deposit when
lake water evaporates.

FAST FACTS
Just 12 miles (20 km) away from Lake
Natron lies Ol Doinyo Lengai, the only
active volcano in the world that erupts
“cold” lava. Unlike normal, silicate-rich lava,
the molten rock it spews forth contains
This lake contains calcium, carbon dioxide, and sodium. It
minerals that come from erupts at about 932ºF (500ºC)—very hot,
hot springs, the lake’s but half the temperature of normal lava—
volcanic bedrock, and the
ash from a nearby volcano. and emerges black, rather than red,
cooling to stark white.
The volcano’s summit Ol Doinyo Lengai
looks snowcapped, but in is 9,711 ft
fact is covered in ash. (2,960 m) high,
with a classic
cone shape.

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