It’s strange how we see a real-life situation and relate them back to movies we have previously watched – Hollywood tends to have that effect on us. This time, I saw a series of photographs and The Day After Tomorrow somehow sprung to mind.
These are no ordinary statues. They were found on Lake Natron in northern Tanzania where temperatures can rise to 60 °C. The extremely high soda and salt content causes the creatures to calcify, perfectly preserved, as they dry. Certain types of fish have evolved to survive in this environment, but birds and other small mammals don’t have such luck – they often gradually get turned to stone after some time in the water.
Photographer Nick Brandt tells NewScientist:
“I could not help but photograph them. 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.”
Beautiful photos, eerie subjects. You can find these photos and many more in Brandt’s new book, Across the Ravaged Land, a third and final volume of photography documenting the disappearance of animals in Eastern Africa.
via New Scientist
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