Lake Natron, Alkaline lake in northern Tanzania
Lake Natron is a shallow alkaline salt lake in the Gregory Rift, at most 57 kilometres long and 22 kilometres wide, less than three metres deep. Its open water turns deep red from cyanobacteria pigments, with orange shallows and pink or red salt crust along the edges.
Over thousands of years, ongoing evaporation combined with limited water outflow transformed this body from a freshwater system into a shallow alkaline basin within the East African Rift Valley.
The name comes from natron, the sodium carbonate decahydrate left by evaporation; in Swahili the lake is Ziwa Natron. The shores are uninhabited, with only some herding and seasonal cultivation nearby. The lesser flamingos inspired Disneynature's 2008 film The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos.
Access works best between June and November when dirt roads remain passable and water levels drop, revealing flamingo nesting sites along the southern shoreline near Engare Sero village.
Over one million lesser flamingos depend on these waters as their primary global breeding ground, with the extreme alkalinity deterring predators from reaching nesting areas on salt crusts.
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