Scientist Uncover "God's Bathtub" In Australia

Imagine a lake that's never been affected by climate change
or any other man-made influences. Australian scientists
say they have found just that—a remote lake whose
crystal-clear waters seem to be in the same chemical state
as they were about 7,500 years ago.
"It's like God's bathtub," Dr. Cameron Barr told the
Australian Associated Press of the body of water now
named Blue Lake. "It is beautiful. It is absolutely beautiful."
Barr and his team of researchers from the University of
Adelaide say the lake—one of the largest on North
Stradbroke Island off the south Queensland coast,
according to the AAP—is so pure that you can see more
than 30 feet below the surface to its bottom.
"It appears that Blue Lake has been an important climate
'refuge' for the freshwater biota of the region, and is in the
same condition now as it was 7,500 years ago," Barr told
the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Barr, who published his findings in the current issue of
Freshwater Biology, said it's the only such lake of its kind
known to be in Australia.
To reach its conclusion, the team studied the lake's water
quality, fossil pollen and algae, which team members then
compared with photos taken of nearby areas on the island
over the past 117 years.
Several other nearby former lakes have dried up over the
past 40 years due to climate change, Barr noted. In fact,
Barr's team was on North Stradbroke to study the effects
of those former bodies of water when his team stumbled
across the anomaly that is Blue Lake.
The lake's water has remained unchanged, said Barr,
because its waters drain into a nearby swamp and are
replaced by an aquifer every 35 days or so.
"Because it's constantly being updated it doesn't suffer
from the vagaries of the climate in so far as it doesn't
evaporate and become more saline," Barr told the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation. "It doesn't fill up and
become fresher. It just remains constant."
Barr said something as small as sunscreen samples from
tourists could alter the lake's chemistry.