The most poisonous lakes in the world
Baikal, Michigan, Victoria – these famous lakes (two of which are more than many seas combined) keep a supply of the purest drinking water, which will be enough for several generations. We are 80% water, so for us it is vital. But not all lakes have kept the water clean. The most beautiful Scottish lakes are known not only for the search for the Loch Ness plesiosaur, but also for the fact that for more than two centuries this is one of the main shipping canals on the British Isles. Let’s look at the lakes, where thanks to man there is no longer and there can be no human life.
The most poisonous lakes in the world
Rio Tinto, Spain
Rio is a river, Tinto is red. Brazil was once called the Portuguese colonialists by the local name for mahogany. The Spanish province of Andalusia is still in Europe. The trouble is that gold, silver, copper, nickel, molybdenum have been mined there for more than three thousand years … Mercury was also mined in the Middle Ages. The result of pollution of the lake, into which numerous drains flow, is predictable and visible in the illustration. Oddly enough, extreme bacteria live there, they don’t need air (they are anaerobic), but they really need nitrogen. Astrobiologists believe that this type of bacteria will get along well on Mars.
Karachay, Russia
Atomic scientists will go to this lake only in one case: to end life a painful death. The idyllic picture hides all known isotopes of the most deadly radioactive elements, from strontium to plutonium, after the 1975 Kyshtym accident. Measurements in 2017 showed that less than an hour of being on the lake without a full suit of chemical and radio protection give an almost lethal dose of radiation. Fishermen love some places of the lake, because fish of unprecedented size swims there. Even such brave souls dare not to eat it.
Sitarum, Indonesia
The Indian Ocean is huge. The Indonesian archipelago is the largest in the world. But problems with drinking water began there long before the industrial revolution. Now, at least 300 million people are forced to boil slop just to get drunk water – and this is in a tropical climate. Waste more than a hundred chemical enterprises flow to Sitarum Lake. Many fall on the rice fields. In 2011, the government vowed to resolve the situation. The cost of a 15-year lake rehabilitation project was estimated at $ 4 billion. The situation is gradually improving.
Boiling Lake, Dominican Republic
This is not Kamchatka, and not Yellowstone, but the Dominican boiling lake is considered the second water temperature in the world. This is not a geyser valley, but a full-fledged lake. It is located in the Valley of Non-existence – the talking name is due to the fact that nobody lives at all on the coast at a temperature of 83–93 degrees Celsius depending on the direction of the wind.
The good news is that such a hot lake quickly boils away. The bad thing is that all this heat comes directly from the magmatic rift, and when the sleeping volcano wakes up in the tropics, as well as in Siberia, it can become really hot.
Azure Creek, UK
Azure Creek used to be a quarry in Devonshire. She looks great: but God forbid you even put your hand in her. Such a beautiful color is due to the concentration of toxic substances, even by Chernobyl standards. For clarity, let’s say that the pH level there is 11.3, and in the concentrated bleach – 12.6. No one approaches the lake without a respirator, because such a strong smell of ammonia deters even rats. Oddly enough, studies show that the water in the lake is self-cleaning.
Horseshoe Lake, California
California is famous not only for the largest concentration of billionaires per square mile, but also for places with ugly ecology. “Podkovnoe lake” is one of them. The case of three professional foresters, who were too close to the lake during a routine inspection, was best known.
Lonely Lake, California
Very old, just as lonely, and ranked second on the list of the most dangerous in California. It does not have access to the Pacific Ocean, but the salt is just as much, and the alkali in it is 10 pH. Scientists have found that the cause of this is limestone-salt columns remaining from the ice age.
Sometimes birds fly to the lake – ornithologists believe that simply out of curiosity, since birds have an excellent scent, and they cannot sense the deadly danger. Survive the strongest.
Kivu: Congo and Rwanda
The lake is located on the front of the front of incessant tribal war for more than half a century. This in itself makes it very life-threatening. But nature itself has created this boundary for the warring states: methane and carbon monoxide are constantly emitted from the depths; when sufficient volume has accumulated, it is enough to shoot a rifle or throw a match. Such cases were, and always ended with the death of all living things within a radius of 50–100 km. There are a lot of underwater volcanoes in Africa, but this one is considered the most insidious.
