There is one unusual lake in Australia, Lake Hillier. If you look at it from above, it looks like a huge pink gum! Hillier is bright pink, a Barbie doll could live on its shore. But to approach it, you need to try - there is an impassable area around. Therefore, if you want to swim in it, you need to prepare and overcome a difficult road first.
How did the lake appear there and why is it such an unusual color?
For a long time, only locals knew about Lake Hillier, because tourists and scientists could not just go to it. After the Aborigines, the scientist and traveler Matthew Flinder learned about it in the XIX century, when he was exploring Australia. He found the lake by accident: he just sailed past the small island of Middle Island and decided to study it, climbed a mountain, from where a panorama of the whole area opened. Where I saw a lake of an unusual color.
Why is it pink?
When scientists learned about the lake, the first thing they asked was: why is the water in it so pink?
There are several reservoirs in the world with water of an unusual color. Some seem colored because of the sediments that lie at their bottom, many lakes are given unusual shades by the corals growing there. Hillier is different from everyone else in that if you scoop up water from there, it will remain the same pink color!
- At first, scientists thought that the lake had this color because of the large amount of salt it contained. Some time ago, these crystals were really extracted from it, but they stopped because it turned out to be unprofitable.
- Some thought that the water contained microorganisms that colored the water, but they were able to prove this hypothesis only in 2017. Researchers conducted a metagenomic analysis and found out that the lake contains the algae brackish-water dunaliella. In addition to them, the water contains many bacteria - dechloromone aromatica and salinibacter ruber. It is because of this mixture that the water turns out to be such a bright color. At different times of the year, the lake takes on shades from burgundy to red.
You can and should swim in the lake! It is shallow and salty, suitable even for those who do not swim very well, and the water itself is very useful for the skin: the algae that it contains secrete keratin, which contains a lot of vitamin A. After bathing, your skin will be soft, saturated with useful substances.
To look at the incredible Lake Hillier, you need to buy a ticket to Australia, and then get to Middle Island, then walk through the forest - and lo and behold, this miracle of nature is in front of you! Just work, don't you agree?
