"God's Bathtub" Has Gone Unchanged for 7,500 Years Despite Regional Climate Change

In a world where humans are constantly manipulating the environment, scientists from the University of Adelaide in Australia say they have located a lake that has remained untouched by both people and climate change for more than 7,000 years.

Nicknamed “God’s bathtub,” Blue Lake is one of the largest lakes on North Stradbroke Island located southeast of Brisbane, and is so clear researchers were able to see to the bottom 32 feet down.

Despite its apparent beauty, however, the scientists said they didn’t realize how unique the place was until they began looking at a “wide range of environmental markers,” according to lead author Cameron Barr of the university’s Discipline of Geography, Environment and Population.

These markers included the lake’s water discharge, water quality and comparison of historical photos over the past 117 years, in addition to fossil pollen and algae.

Published in the journal Freshwater Biology, the results revealed a world removed from the one around it.

"We know that there have been variations in climate in the region including North Stradbroke Island over recent decades, but during that time the depth, shoreline and water chemistry of Blue Lake has displayed little variation,” Barr said in a news release.

This was true, according to the scientists, even when they looked back 4,000 years to a period in which the region experienced a “significant” shift toward a drier climate.

“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 said.

However, project leader and co-author John Tibby warned, the lake is not completely invincible, pointing to parts of their the study that suggest increased extraction of ground water represents a threat to its stability. And with a regional aquifer currently underway, Tibby said he's worried.

For this reason, Barr believes people – the very thing the lake has been protected from for so long – may be necessary in order to manage the area.

“With appropriate management,” he said, “the lake could continue relatively unchanged for hundreds, possibly thousands of years to come.”