Lake Albert (South Australia)

The Lake Albert is a freshwater lake in the south of the Australian state of South Australia. The lake lies south of Adelaide is connected to the larger Lake Alexandrina through the natural channel The Narrows. The Narrung Peninsula separates it from the saltwater lake Coorong in the southwest. The only settlement on the lake is the town of Meningie on the southeast shore.

The lake was Albert of Saxe- Coburg and Gotha, the husband of Queen Victoria, named.

Since there are no significant inflows, but a high rate of evaporation, the water of Lake Albert has a higher salt content than that of Lake Alexandrina. The Lake Albert is also smaller and not as deep as Lake Alexandrina.

In 2008, the water level decreased in both lakes to such an extent that large amounts of sulfuric acid formed earth, because normally bound to the lake bottom sulfur compounds are transformed with the atmospheric oxygen in sulfuric acid as soon as the lake bed is dry. Some people wanted to flood the lakes with sea water to stop the acidification, and there is a dispute between the riparian states of the Murray River as the decreased amount of water is to be divided.

The pH in Lake Albert was recently measured to be 1.93, indicating a value of the strong acid and is very dangerous.