PICS: Extraordinary Conditions Of This Lake Turns Wildlife To Stone

Lake Natron, located in North Tanzania, is home to the most extraordinary scenes. The haunting subjects in these photographs look very like props from a horror film

The rare phenomenon is due to the chemical makeup of the water, with a constant pH of 9 to 10.5 which is an extremely basic alkalinity, contact with the lake proves deadly for wildlife.

Across the Ravaged Land, is a book of images published by photographer Nick Brandt, the collection documents the perfectly preserved creatures. The haunting black and whites images are remarkable.

“I took these creatures as I found them on the shoreline, and then placed them in ‘living’ positions, bringing them back to ‘life’, as it were. Reanimated, alive again in death,” Nick explained.

“I unexpectedly found the creatures - all manner of birds and bats - washed up along the shoreline of Lake Natron in Northern Tanzania. No-one knows for certain exactly how they die, but it appears that the extreme reflective nature of the lake’s surface confuses them, and like birds crashing into plate glass windows, they crash into the lake. The water has an extremely high soda and salt content, so high that it would strip the ink off my Kodak film boxes within a few seconds. The soda and salt causes the creatures to calcify, perfectly preserved, as they dry.”

All images via Nick Brandt