Trinidad Tobago in the Caribbean is home to one of the strangest lakes in the world. Called Pitch Lake, this lake is brimming with strange microbial life, and its “waters” have such a strange consistency that you can walk on it.
Located near La Brea on Trinidad’s southwestern tip, Pitch Lake is about 40 hectares in size and 76 meters deep. It is filled with approximately 10 million tons of asphalt, or pitch (English: Pitch), making it the largest natural asphalt deposit in the world.
It is located at the intersection of Earth’s two geological fault lines. Asphalt is thought to have formed thousands of years ago, when fault lines beneath were deep enough to reach oil and gas reservoirs.
The abundance of fluffy asphalt gives the lake a very special quality. Basically this lake acts like a huge muddy asphalt puddle with intermittent pools of water. The lake is solid enough that you can stand on it and walk around without too much difficulty at some points. In other parts, a wrong step causes you to sink slowly, like a spoon falling into a “heavy pudding”.
Due to the flammable nature of the oil, smoking is prohibited near the lake. It is said that if you drop a match into any of the pools of water, a violent explosion of flame will occur.
Despite the unique qualities of this lake, not much scientific research has been done on it. But the researchers studied the microbial life of the lake and found, unsurprisingly, that it held some surprises.
A 2011 study concluded that “the microbial diversity in Pitch Lake is unique when compared to microbial communities analyzed in other hydrocarbon-rich environments.” In addition to discovering a never-before-seen group of species, the microbial communities living here were found to consist of bacteria and archaea that live together and “have very branching lineages.”
The lake is also briefly mentioned in the accounts of Sir Walter Raleigh’s 1595 expedition to the Caribbean and South America. Sir Raleigh noticed the quality of the asphalt and used it to seal leaks on ships. Reportedly, he described this asphalt as “really perfect… It doesn’t melt in the sun like Norwegian pitch.”
It is even possible to walk on Pitch Lake.Used for asphalt for years
As colonialism increased in the Caribbean, the European powers exploited this precious natural resource and shipped high-quality asphalt all over the world. By the 19th and 20th centuries, commercial asphalt harvesting by the British was booming, and hundreds of thousands of tons were exported worldwide.
While British explorer Sir Walter Raleigh is often cited in history books as the name who discovered the lake, the lake had a long history before European colonization, as evidenced by archaeological evidence dating back to 500 BC. According to legends of local communities, the lake was created by the Great Spirit as punishment for killing hummingbirds that were sacred to them.
Today, the lake is still used to remove asphalt, but operations are now controlled by the state-owned Trinidad and Tobago Lake Asphalt company. At the same time, this strange area is also seen as a visiting point for tourists who want to go on expeditions along the semi-solid lake.
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