The motion-picture show above is of a real lake . The scene has n’t been Photoshopped . The lake is n’t fill with Pepto - Bismol , bubble gum , or pink food dye . It ’s just naturally pinkish .
Australia ’s LakeHillieris situated on an island in the Recherche Archipelago , a collection of islandsto the southof Western Australia . The lake is about 2,000 feet ( 600 cadence ) long and 800 feet ( 250 meters ) wide but , because it ’s not on the mainland , it went undiscovered until 1802 . That year , a British explorer summited a mountain and eyed what he called a " small lake of rose colour,“Jeopardy!champ Ken Jenningswrote inConde Nast Traveler . So , as far as we know , it ’s always been pinkish .
The pinkish colour is n’t an optical illusion , either . If you go to the shores of Lake Hillier , you ’ll see that the pink hue stay on , although it ’s dull a bit , as visualize below . And if you scoop some of the urine into a pail or jar ( ideally a clear one ) , the water still stay pink .
So what causes this phenomenon ? While there are a few plausible explanations as to why Lake Hillier is pinkish , the most uncouth theories center on saltiness and algae . Lake Hillier has a very high-pitched concentration of salt , comparable to theDead Sea , which has near a 33 % salt ( making it well-nigh 10 times as piquant as the sea ) . secondly , Lake Hillier is home to a type of algae known asDunaliella salina . Unlike most algae , which turns organic structure of water supply into a murky green vividness , Dunaliella salinahas a ruby paint which help it suck up light . Becausethis algaethrives in salty environments — and very few other life forms can — its overwhelming amount might be the reasonLake Hillier is a deep , boneheaded pink .
And while you in all likelihood do n’t want to drink the water , it ’s good for man to swim in it . ( The lake is unvoiced to get to , though — you need to take a helicopter from the mainland to the island ) . But do n’t await to commit your breaststroke or crawl — you wo n’t see it very easy to navigate through the amniotic fluid . The gamey salt of the lake have in mind that you ’ll bob along , floating the whole way like " a cork in a bottleful of pink , pink wine , " as Jennings puts it .
