Super Salty Lake Looks Like a Strawberry Milkshake [Image Cache]

Super Salty Lake Looks Like a Strawberry Milkshake [Image Cache]:
Photographed from above it looks like a pool of melty Strawberry ice cream, but Lake Retba, which runs blood-red through Senegal, West Africa, gets its unusual color from an unusually high salt content—in some up to 40-percent!
Microbiologist Michael Danson says that the water gets its candy-colored hue from the salt-loving organism Dunaliella salina (an algae). "They produce a red pigment that absorbs and uses the energy of sunlight to create more energy, turning the water pink," he told the Daily Mail.
To protect their skin from the harsh drying effects of the abundant mineral, salt collectors must first cover themselves in Shea butter before wading into the 3-meter deep lake. [DailyMail - Images via Barcroft Media]