{"id":1295633,"date":"2022-02-14T08:52:27","date_gmt":"2022-02-14T13:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1295633"},"modified":"2022-02-14T08:52:32","modified_gmt":"2022-02-14T13:52:32","slug":"fact-check-does-this-tanzanian-lake-turn-any-animal-that-touches-it-to-stone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fact-check-does-this-tanzanian-lake-turn-any-animal-that-touches-it-to-stone\/","title":{"rendered":"FACT CHECK: Does This Tanzanian Lake Turn Any Animal That Touches It To Stone?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffact-check-does-this-tanzanian-lake-turn-any-animal-that-touches-it-to-stone%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1295633&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>An image <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/IATZi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">shared on Facebook<\/a> claims any animal that touches Natron Lake in Tanzania will turn to stone.<\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Verdict: False<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>While the saltwater lake is highly alkaline and inhospitable for some species of animals, other species are capable of living in and around it. The carcasses of animals that died in the lake are calcified over time by the properties of the lake, not turned to stone.<\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Fact Check:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Lake Natron in Tanzania is a saltwater lake with a pH of 10.5 (nearly as high as that of ammonia) and temperatures up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/science-nature\/this-alkaline-african-lake-turns-animals-into-stone-445359\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Smithsonian Magazine<\/a>. An image shared on Facebook claims it turns any animal that touches it to stone.<\/p>\n<p>The image shows what appears to be the petrified remains of two birds sitting on a body of water. \u201cNatron Lake in Tanzania is the most (sic) deadliest place for animals,\u201d reads text included in the image. \u201cAny animal which touches the lake turns into stone.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/checkyourfact.com\/2021\/06\/21\/fact-check-image-heart-shaped-pond-zimbabwe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED: Does This Image Show A Heart-Shaped Pond In Zimbabwe?)<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The dead animals in the photos were not instantly turned to stone by the lake, but rather became calcified due to the characteristics of the lake, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/science\/article\/lake-that-turns-animals-to-stone-not-so-deadly-as-photos-suggest\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">National Geographic<\/a>. The photographs included in the post were taken by photographer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nickbrandt.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nick Brandt<\/a> in 2013, who collected the animal carcasses around the lake\u2019s shoreline and posed them for the pictures, the outlet reported.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA calcified flamingo, preserved by the highly basic waters of Tanzania\u2019s Lake Natron and photographed by Nick Brandt,\u201d reads National Geographic\u2019s caption of one of the photos included in the Facebook post. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/40135-photographer-rick-brandt-lake-natron.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Live Science<\/a> describes the dead animals as having \u201cchalky sodium carbonate deposits outlining their bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Though the harsh conditions have made the lake inhospitable for most species, some sea life and other birds can withstand the properties of the lake, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/40135-photographer-rick-brandt-lake-natron.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Live Science<\/a>. The lake does support \u201ca thriving ecosystem of salt marshes, freshwater wetlands, flamingos and other wetland birds, tilapia and the algae on which large flocks of flamingos feed,\u201d the outlet reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An image shared on Facebook claims any animal that touches Natron Lake in Tanzania will turn to stone.Verdict: False While the saltwater lake is highly alkaline and inhospitable for some &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1295633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1295633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1295633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1295633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1295633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1295633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1295633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}