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.