Natural phenomenon: the asphalt lake Peach lake in Trinidad

Lake Peach lake, located in the southwest of Trinidad, is famous because it is one of the natural "deposits" of asphalt. This is one of the biggest tar pits in the world, covering an area of about 40 hectares, and the depth about 80 m. a Characteristic feature of Peach Lake in that items that in any way fall on the surface of the lake, gradually go to the bottom, and those that spent a few centuries among the molten asphalt may from time to time to float to the surface.





Unique lake was formed due to the fact that thousands of years ago in the Caribbean have witnessed a tectonic fault, and oil from deep deposits rose to the surface. In fact natural asphalt is nothing like the mixture of clay, water and oil.





Lake Peach lake was discovered by Walter Raleigh in 1595, the locals showed the Englishman a lake of "black gold", which they called Tierra de Brea. Initially, the resourceful Europeans used the bitumen to osmolki wooden sheathing of ships. Having made a second expedition to Trinidad, Walter Raleigh decided to transport natural asphalt for the construction of Westminster bridge, which was dedicated to the opening of the Parliament building. However, during the transportation of the natural material is simply melted, pretty vypechka horses.





Industrial exploitation of mountain lake began in 1867. For all the time it was produced about 10 million tons of asphalt and raw materials used for the construction of high quality road surfaces not only in Trinidad and Tobago, and other Caribbean Islands. In addition, mined in Peach lake asphalt paved street more than fifty countries, including the United States of America, England, India, Singapore, Egypt and Japan. According to experts, the lake contains about 6 million tons of asphalt, at the present rate of extraction it should be enough for about 400 years.





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