Simple facts
Where is it? Turkish Lake Van [38.91395038, 43.12483070]
What do you see in the photo? A rare plume of mostly inorganic materials swirling in alkaline lakes
Who took the photo? NASA astronaut Kate Rubins rides on the International Space Station
When did you take it? September 12, 2016
This stunning astronaut photograph shows a series of milky vortices that appeared in the waters of Lake Turkish van, the largest “soda lake” on Earth. Swirls look like a common natural phenomenon, but they are actually much rarer.
Lakevan is the largest lake in Turkey, with a surface area of approximately 1,200 square miles (3,100 square kilometers) and slightly smaller than Rhode Island. Its surface is located at an altitude of 5,380 feet (1,640 meters) above sea level, at a pH of about 10, which is highly alkaline.
The photo above shows a portion of a lake van around the city of Elssi, located along the North Shore of the lake. The swirls in the image are very similar to the shapes that appear between algae flowers when plankton species are caught in wind-driven streams as they grow rapidly. However, this was not the cause of these swirls.
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Instead, the milky material in the lake is primarily composed of calcium carbonate, which, according to NASA’s Earth Observatory, consists of calcium carbonate and organic matter remaining from the born and dead animals.
This milky swirl is known as the “turbidity plume.” This is a cloud of suspended matter caused by natural or human-induced disturbances into the lake bed. These plumes are likely to appear in this part of the lake, with water levels being shallower than the rest of the lake, reaching a maximum depth of approximately 1,450 feet (450 m).
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Lake Van also has one of the highest concentrations of “microorganisms” on the planet. This is a collection of freely floating organic deposition structures formed by the trapping, bonding and precipitation of minerals by various microorganisms. Microbial community production peaks in spring and fall, with increasing microbial community. However, according to the Earth Observatory, this is not considered to be the cause of these specific swirls.
High pH levels in the lake are caused by high concentrations of carbonate salts. Carbonates accumulate over time as the lake is “endrahaic.” Therefore, when water evaporates from the lake, the salt concentration increases.
The salt concentration of the lake is very high, and water rarely freezes even when temperatures often fall below 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius) during the winter.
The lake’s van levels have changed significantly over the past 600,000 years as changes in the Earth’s climate have changed the rate of water input and evaporation. A 2014 survey estimated that its depth fluctuated approximately 2,000 feet (600 m) during this period.
The large milky vortex in the photo is not caused by algae flowers, but you can see small concentrations of phytoplankton accumulated along the Elssi coastline, as well as within the small lake near the top of the image.
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