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Comment by samstokes | Hacker News Reader

OT, but did anyone else feel surprise and nerdjoy to read that this actually exists on Earth:

a deadly poisonous lake... Mono Lake, in California’s Yosemite National Park... one of the highest natural concentrations of arsenic

I thought forbidden lakes whose inky waters are death to mortals were the stuff of fantasy novels. (In fact, any Terry Brooks fans think this was the inspiration for the Hadeshorn?)

(After a bit of further reading, it seems the article overplayed the "deadly" aspect, since fish live in the lake, birds eat there, and humans have dived in it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_lake)

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The Berkeley Pit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Pit) is similarly fantasy-novel in its toxicity. Indeed, it is the result of the works of men, inadvertently poisoning the land in their search for buried riches.

It dissolves the geese that land on it, but they still found life in it not too long ago.

+1 for "dissolves the geese".

Goose goo

That's an exaggeration, but it is extremely hostile.

This was the subject of a Radiolab segment not too long ago: http://www.radiolab.org/2010/jun/28/even-the-worst-laid-plan...

I have to post links to Radiolab whenever something related comes up on HN because I am so sure that many HN readers would love Radiolab, and I am afraid there are still people out there who haven't discovered it.

  whose inky waters are death to mortals

And yet you can swim in the lake. Snorkeling there is supposed to be quite the experience.

If you want a really scary lake, try Lake Karachay:

  According to a report by the Washington, D.C.-based
  Worldwatch Institute on nuclear waste, Karachay is 
  the most polluted spot on Earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Karachay

Also: http://www.damninteresting.com/in-soviet-russia-lake-contami...

I was surprised to learn that Mono Lake, [is] in California’s Yosemite National Park. Last time I checked, it was well to the east...

and the article also called it "Mona Lake." Their facts aren't straight.

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