Growing at a rate of 4 million cubic litres per year, it’s a seemingly endless supply. And that’s what happened in Tanzania where a deposit of some 460 billion cubic litres of soda ash was discovered in the Lake Natron Basin. Soda ash is cheaper to mine than to make, so any country finding itself sitting on a deposit stands to have a viable market for the resource.
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In total, the world demand for soda ash is estimated to be around 52 million metric tons per year and is expected to grow to nearly 65 million metric tons by 2016.
![lake natron flamingo season lake natron flamingo season](https://cloudfront.safaribookings.com/library/kenya/xxl/Lake_Nakuru_National_Park_005.jpg)
In addition, soda ash is used in the production of soaps and detergents and provides chemical co-products such as salt, borax, sodium bicarbonate, and sodium sulfite. Beverage bottles account for a lion’s share of the remainder of the glass market. Most of this goes to “flat glass” used for automobiles and in construction as well as mirrors, solar panels, and signs. Worldwide, glass production amounts to more than half of the total end-use for the chemical. Most soda ash is used in the manufacture of glass, allowing silica to melt at a lower furnace temperature, thus saving energy and costs. Soda ash, (sodium carbonate or Na2CO3), is a key raw material essential to the production of many household and industrial products. Almost as alkaline as ammonia, and as scalding as a cup of coffee, the waters of Lake Natron will blister skin, burn nostrils, blind eyes, and poison nearly any animal tempted to drink its water.Īs caustic as it is, there is one resource the lake does offer– soda ash. This is Lake Natron, a shallow saline body of water that burns with alkalinity born of the volcano’s unique soda ash that has rained into its waters over the last 350,000 years. There exists, in northern Tanzania, a lake of fire.įormed more than a million years ago by the restless movement of tectonic plates under Africa’s Great Rift Valley, it lies in the shadow of the active volcano, Ol Doinyo Lengai.
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Therefore, if we lose Lake Natron, we may never truly know what we will have lost,” - Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Natural Resources, Tourism ( ) There are a number of campgrounds near the lake, which is also the base for climbing Ol Doinyo Lengai.“The value of the pride that we have as a country the cultural sense and self- worth of the Maasai the breathtaking sceneries of the Rift Valley and the debt to future generations cannot be monetised and may never be known. Walks around the lake and to the streams and waterfalls along the nearby escarpment make for a fantastic adventure off the beaten track. This has allowed the lake to concentrate into a caustic alkaline brine The lavas have significant amounts of carbonate but very low calcium and magnesium levels. The surrounding bedrock is composed of alkaline, sodium-dominated trachyte lavas that were laid down during the Pleistocene period. The alkalinity of the lake can reach a pH of greater than 12. High levels of evaporation have left behind natron (sodium carbonate decahydrate) and trona (sodium sesquicarbonate dihydrate).
![lake natron flamingo season lake natron flamingo season](https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTA5MzU3Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1ODU2NzIxOH0.qkzladS2TAfmjLL0kMce0r-nw7bg4vE1_IKuLGpZan0/img.jpg)
The lake and its ecosystem provides a source of livelihoods to the local communities. Food is plentiful, nesting sites abound – and above all, the lake is isolated and undisturbed. East Africa has 1.5-2.5 million Lesser Flamingos, representing three-quarters of the world population and most of them are hatched at Lake Natron.