Hillier Lake

Hillier Lake

We traveled to Australia to visit the Lake Hillier. It is a very special lake as it has pinkish waters. It is located in Middle Isand, an island some 5 and a half kilometers long that is located in the south of Australia. The lake has the characteristic of having pinkish waters and this makes it the target of numerous scientific investigations and a great variety of rumors and theories.

In this article we are going to tell you all the characteristics, curiosities and why Lake Hillier is pink.

Key features

It is a lake that measures approximately about 600 meters long and 200 meters wide. It is found in the natural ecosystem of an island in southern Australia. It is surrounded by thick forests of eucalyptus and malecuca. This last species of plant hardly anyone knows about it and one has a lot of scientific evidence regarding it. There are many people on the internet who claim that science cannot explain the color of this lake. This is totally untrue.

Lake Hillier was discovered in 1802 thanks to an expedition known as Findlers. This expedition lasted 40 years and one acquired a lot of information about this curious lake. In the studies and investigations carried out in the lake, it was found that it was saturated with salt. And it is that there are 340 grams of salt for each liter of water. This is more than a quarter of salt in a liter of water. This healing is very similar to that of the Dead Sea. The environment is so salty that it cannot sustain life for the vast majority of animals. However, there are bacteria that have adapted to these salinity conditions and can live in these environments. Some of these bacteria they are dunaliella salina and halobacteria.

These bacteria contain a large amount of beta carotenes that help protect them from the intense solar radiation. This component comes in carrots, squash, and tomatoes. You are surely already noticing the similarity between these mentioned vegetables with the color of Lake Hillier. And it is that this chemical substance is used for cosmetics thanks to its antioxidant properties. It is also used in the food coloring industry for its color. This natural color suffers from yellowish to reddish.

Much of Lake Hillier's color comes from these bacteria that they are loaded with beta carotenes.

Lake Hillier bacteria

Pink Hillier Lake

On the other hand we find the halobacteria. These organisms are known as Extremophiles. In other words, they are capable of living and developing adapted to the conditions they have. In this case, the extreme conditions are extreme salinity and solar radiation. These halobacteria have a protein known as bacterioruberin, which is used to absorb sunlight and carry out photosynthesis. This pigment is red in color.

This causes that there are two types of bacteria that are mixed and that mixes the lighter shade of the dunaliella salina and the brighter red of the halobacteria. These two colors are mixed together to give the characteristic pink color of Lake Hillier.

Many people think that the consistency of this lake is that of a strawberry milkshake. However, as you get closer to the lake and draw water from it, you can see the color lighten. The pink color is more intense when you look at it from the air and see the bottom full of salt. Although this lake has this unusual water color, the water is not toxic if ingested. The most that can happen to you is the same as seawater symptoms with a large amount of salt.

Lake Hillier Curiosities

This lake is located on a totally uninhabited and jungle island. This means that you cannot go in person to see the lake in situ. The only way to see this lake is by flying over the reserve island in a helicopter from Esperance. Normally these trips are very expensive, but if you can afford them unforgettable.

Although the most indicated reason for the pink color is the one we have mentioned, There is no scientific consensus that can tell us why. What we do know is that such high concentrations of salt in a lake do not allow the development of life as we often know it, a text makes that organisms that can survive in these environments must adopt extreme conditions. Thus, There are stranger and more unusual forms of life than we are used to seeing.

The same goes for the seabed. Fish such as the drop fish have acquired such a strange morphology because they have to adapt to the great pressures of the maritime units. This is why there is a pink lake.

I hope that with this information you can learn more about Lake Hillier.


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