Even though exploring a nice lake, river or even swimming at the beach usually sounds like a lot a fun, not all water bodies around the world are without their risks. As you might expect, there are just some places on our beautiful earth with bodies of water that seem comfortable to take a dive or swim in, but the reality is that they can actually have fatal consequences.
Here are ten of the Earth’s most dangerous waters around. Swimmers, beware!
1) Lake Michigan, USA
Lake Michigan is one of the five great lakes in North America between the US and Canada, and it has received an infamous reputation, not unlike the Bermuda Triangle, mostly due to a horrible and unexplained plane crash that occurred in 1950. The lake itself is dangerous because of currents that suddenly begin to form. Unfortunately, these currents are the cause of dozens of fatalities on a yearly basis.
2) Jacob’s Well, Texas, USA
Jacob’s Well features crystal clear and naturally blue water, but underneath are multiple entrances to a surprisingly dangerous cave network. The network is so vast and many people who go in, don’t make it out at all.
3) Boiling Lake, Dominica
Chances are you won’t stumble upon this like by accident, as it requires about 8 hours of traveling to get there. Boiling Lake is situated high in the mountains and can heat up to a temperature of almost 200 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat is due to hot air spurts coming from below, as magma is always close by. The boiling process is almost instant and hard to predict.
4) Great Blue Hole, Belize
This body of water certainly hasn’t stolen its name, as it perfectly describes the way it looks. The Great Blue Hole can be best described as a sort of vortex and can suck things into the water like a magnet and sudden outbursts of water aren’t uncommon.
5) Rio Tinto, Spain
The Rio Tinto is a river in the southern part of Spain, close by to Portugal. Over the past thousands of years, there was a bunch of fossil excavation which caused pieces of metals such as copper, iron and heavier elements to saturate the water of the Rio Tinto. Due to all these metal elements reacting with the water, the acidity of the river is extremely high, and it also causes the reddish tint.
6) Lake Kivu
Even though Lake Kivu seems like the most peaceful body of water on this list, it is perhaps the most deadly. Lake Kivu is known as an ‘explosive lake’, as the water harbors tons of CO² and an unfathomable amount of highly explosive methane at the bottom of the lake. A slight and sudden shift in the ground, which can be caused by an earthquake, will cause the lake to explode and erupt a deadly cloud of CO², putting the two million lives of the inhabitants around Lake Kivu in severe danger.
7) Horseshoe Lake, USA
Although the waters of Horseshoe Lake in Arkansas seem tranquil and silent, it is actually the carbon dioxide hiding underneath which proves to be dangerous, not unlike Lake Kivu. The lake has been known to emit high amounts of CO² and has already caused two fatalities.
8) Lake Natron, Tanzania
The conditions of Lake Natron in Tanzania are all sorts of extreme. The water over there is extremely salty and also is extremely alkaline, which causes a crust of salt that is often seen with a red glare. The temperature is also fairly high at 120 Fahrenheit, and most species can’t survive in these rather extreme conditions.
9) Drake Passage
Not all passageways are as safe as they may look, as is the case with the infamous Drake Passage. There are a lot of icebergs that obstruct the path that ships have to go through, and both the currents and the winds in the area are not to be underestimated. Known as a ship cemetery throughout the course of history, the creation of the Panama Canal luckily created a safer alternative route.
10) Blue Hole, Dahab
The Blue Hole is especially dangerous for divers, as the hole forms the opening for a cave that is over 400 feet deep. It’s not really the location itself that causes the most issues, but rather divers underestimating the length and complexity of the cave. A lot of divers simply pass away because they run out of oxygen on their way up, or because of nitrogen narcosis caused by the high water pressure.
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Source: Bright Side, Wikipedia
