As beautiful as this lake appears, it is as dangerous. 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. It turns animals to stone In the northern region of Arusha close to the Kenyan border lies Tanzania’s Lake Natron. Nick Brandt / Courtesy of Hasted Kraeutler Gallery A calcified dove, from Nick Brandt's book Across The Ravaged Land, published by Abrams, New York. The Lake came into notice worldwide after the great photographer Nick Brandt released some of his captures during his visit to the Lake Natron. The culprit is Ol Doinyo Lengai, a million-year old volcano just south of Lake Natron.

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. 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.

Lake natron mummy