Pink Lake Coast

Pink Lake Coast is an original illustration set in Western Australia Coast. It lies in the subtropics, where the climate is cold semi-arid steppe.

A vivid bubble-gum-pink lake sits as one flat colour field, ringed by a white salt crust, seen straight down at noon. Deep indigo ocean lies just beyond a thin strip of pale dune. Nothing else interrupts the frame.

Why is this lake pink?

The pink is an alga that produces a red carotenoid to protect itself from intense light in water too salty for anything else to live. Salinity that high needs strong evaporation and no outflow. A hypersaline lake sitting metres from open ocean means a shallow basin cut off from the sea by a dune barrier and left to concentrate.

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