Despite so many birds dying in Lake Natron, there is a particular species flourishing. Kind of like that one time in the office. He theorized, since the lake is so mirror-like and reflective, the birds must have flown right into it. He discovered several stone birds and other unlucky animals in the dry season when the water had receded. In 2013, wildlife photographer Nick Brandt was one of the first to document this phenomenon. Talk about killing two birds with one stone!

Any birds that happen to take a dive and don’t make it out become calcified in a hardened, stonelike husk. The whole chemical composition is extremely alkaline, with pH levels of 10.5 close to matching ammonia (NH3). Releasing into the water, this mix of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate were key ingredients once used in Egyptian mummification, creating the perfect preservative in lake form. The volcano spews a rare kind of lava rich in sodium (Na) and potassium carbonate (K2CO3), called Natrocarbonatite, or Natron for short.

Lake natron.