The drought affecting Türkiye’s Lake Van continues to worsen, bringing with it many challenges, however it has additionally unveiled nice historic treasures, like 800,000-year-old underwater fairy chimneys as soon as hidden within the lake’s depths.
Lake Van has been affected by local weather change and has repeatedly witnessed a decline in water ranges, however it stays a preferred vacation spot for vacationers and is dwelling to a wealthy ecosystem.
The nation’s largest lake, the declining fee of precipitation and evaporation aggravated by larger temperatures resulted within the extreme drought that has uncovered thousand-year-old stalagmites (microbialites), or “underwater fairy chimneys.”
Microbialites are mounds of rock or benthic sedimentary deposits fabricated from carbonate mud that type with the assistance of microbes. For billions of years, microbialites performed a vital function in serving to produce the oxygen-rich environment that now helps life on earth.
The depths of the lake resemble an open-air museum with buildings which are ecologically very useful, courting again to some 800,000 years.
These microbialite fields have drawn loads of consideration. Resembling coral reefs, these underwater fairy chimneys even have an essential place when it comes to diving tourism.
The distinctive formations are particularly seen within the village of Incekaya, situated on the shore of Van Lake in Tatvan. Hundreds of various sizes can now be seen close by. The ensuing photos provide a fantastic scene, on the one hand, and reveal the scope of the water withdrawal on the opposite.
Though Lake Van is a really useful heritage in addition to its fairy chimneys, the sudden withdrawal of water is definitely inflicting their disappearance. There has been a critical withdrawal within the final two years. It negatively impacts the existence of those formations, that are of nice worth. Those uncovered to the solar and air disappear and switch into rocky buildings.
Even if the water rises once more, they could not survive.
