Karsa, Kenya

Last updated
Karsa
Karsa basalt columns.jpg
Pliocene columnar basalt at Karsa watering hole, in Turkana, Kenya.
LocationMarsabit, Turkana County, Kenya
Kenya relief location map.jpg
Red pog.svg
Location of Karsa in Kenya
Coordinates 03°10′38″N36°32′33″E / 3.17722°N 36.54250°E / 3.17722; 36.54250 Coordinates: 03°10′38″N36°32′33″E / 3.17722°N 36.54250°E / 3.17722; 36.54250

Karsa is a basalt geological formation, archaeological site, and watering hole in Turkana County, Kenya, on the southeast margin of Lake Turkana. Karsa volcanic flows lie at the base of important sedimentary formations in the Turkana Basin and are an example of columnar jointed basalt.

Turkana County County in Kenya

Turkana County is a county in the former Rift Valley Province of Kenya. Turkana is the second largest, by land area, and also the northwesternmost county in Kenya. It is bordered by the countries of Uganda to the west; South Sudan and Ethiopia, including the disputed Ilemi Triangle, to the north and northeast; and Lake Turkana to the east. To the south and east, neighbouring counties in Kenya are West Pokot, Baringo and Samburu Counties, while Marsabit County is located on the opposite shore of Lake Turkana.

Kenya republic in East Africa

Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country in Africa with 47 semiautonomous counties governed by elected governors. At 580,367 square kilometres (224,081 sq mi), Kenya is the world's 48th largest country by total area. With a population of more than 52.2 million people, Kenya is the 27th most populous country. Kenya's capital and largest city is Nairobi while its oldest city and first capital is the coastal city of Mombasa. Kisumu City is the third largest city and also an inland port on Lake Victoria. Other important urban centres include Nakuru and Eldoret.

Lake Turkana Alkaline lake on the border of Ethiopia and Kenya

Lake Turkana, formerly known as Lake Rudolf, is a lake in the Kenyan Rift Valley, in northern Kenya, with its far northern end crossing into Ethiopia. It is the world's largest permanent desert lake and the world's largest alkaline lake. By volume it is the world's fourth-largest salt lake after the Caspian Sea, Issyk-Kul, and Lake Van, and among all lakes it ranks 24th.

Contents

Geology

Karsa is located in Turkana county, in Northern Kenya, east of Lake Turkana's Allia Bay, and south of Sibilot and Koobi Fora. [1] [2] The site is a part of the volcanic highlands at the foot of the Sibilot volcanic system, and is dominated by large, angular boulders that derive from lava outcrops. [3] Older volcanic, Karsa basalts date to 14 million years ago, during the Miocene, and are weathered in a spheroidal pattern. Two younger basalt flows date to 4.35 and 3.97 million years ago, during the Pliocene, and are jointed in a columnar pattern. [1] [4] Karsa basalts underlie the Koobi Fora formation, [5] and just overlie a thin sedimentary sequence that includes molluscs. [4]

The Miocene is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.333 million years ago (Ma). The Miocene was named by Charles Lyell; its name comes from the Greek words μείων and καινός and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene is preceded by the Oligocene and is followed by the Pliocene.

The Pliocene Epoch is the epoch in the geologic timescale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58 million years BP. It is the second and youngest epoch of the Neogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Pliocene follows the Miocene Epoch and is followed by the Pleistocene Epoch. Prior to the 2009 revision of the geologic time scale, which placed the four most recent major glaciations entirely within the Pleistocene, the Pliocene also included the Gelasian stage, which lasted from 2.588 to 1.806 million years ago, and is now included in the Pleistocene.

History

Karsa is a watering hole used by local wildlife in an otherwise barren landscape, [6] and is an archaeological site where Late Stone Age microliths have been found. Karsa's location is advantageous for occupation because of its provision of water and elevated position overlooking the region. [7]

In the 20th century, the Gabbra nomadic people used the Karsa formation as a watering hole for their animals, especially in times of water scarcity. [2] Karsa was sometimes the target of flock raids. [2] In the first half of the 20th century, Karsa stationed the British empire's King's African Rifles, and during the Second World War, became site of a police outpost for the Kenyan and British governments. [2] [8]

Water scarcity Lack of fresh water resources to meet water demand

Water scarcity is the lack of fresh water resources to meet water demand. It affects every continent and was listed in 2019 by the World Economic Forum as one of the largest global risks in terms of potential impact over the next decade. It is manifested by partial or no satisfaction of expressed demand, economic competition for water quantity or quality, disputes between users, irreversible depletion of groundwater, and negative impacts on the environment. One-third of the global population live under conditions of severe water scarcity at least 1 month of the year. Half a billion people in the world face severe water scarcity all year round. Half of the world’s largest cities experience water scarcity.

Kings African Rifles

The King's African Rifles (KAR) was a multi-battalion British colonial regiment raised from Britain's various possessions in East Africa from 1902 until independence in the 1960s. It performed both military and internal security functions within the colonial territory, and served outside these territories during the World Wars. The rank and file (askaris) were drawn from native inhabitants, while most of the officers were seconded from the British Army. When the KAR was first raised there were some Sudanese officers in the battalions raised in Uganda, and native officers were commissioned towards the end of British colonial rule.

After the war, grazing controls were implemented at Karsa and in surrounding areas. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

Lake Baringo Freshwater lake in Kenya

Lake Baringo is, after Lake Turkana, the most northern of the Kenyan Rift Valley lakes, with a surface area of 130 square kilometres (50 sq mi) and an elevation of 970 metres (3,180 ft). The lake is fed by several rivers, Molo, Perkerra and Ol Arabel, and has no obvious outlet; the waters are assumed to seep through lake sediments into the faulted volcanic bedrock. It is one of the two freshwater lakes in the Rift Valley in Kenya, the other being Lake Naivasha. In a remote location in a hot and dusty area with over 470 species of birds, occasionally including migrating flamingos. A Goliath heronry is located on a rocky islet in the lake known as Gibraltar.

Meave Leakey British paleoanthropologist

Meave G. Leakey is a British paleoanthropologist. She works at Stony Brook University and is co-ordinator of Plio-Pleistocene research at the Turkana Basin Institute. She studies early hominid evolution and has done extensive field research in the Turkana Basin. She has Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of Science degrees.

Suguta Valley

The Suguta Valley, also known as the Suguta Mud Flats, is an arid part of the Great Rift Valley in Kenya (Africa), directly south of Lake Turkana.

Sibiloi National Park national park

Sibiloi National Park lies on the northeastern shore of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya. Established in 1973 by the government of Kenya for the protection of wildlife and palaeontological sites there, it covers 1570 km² and is internationally known for its fossils. It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997 as a part of Lake Turkana National Parks.

Koobi Fora Kenyan archeological site

Koobi Fora refers primarily to a region around Koobi Fora Ridge, located on the eastern shore of Lake Turkana in the territory of the nomadic Gabbra people. According to the National Museums of Kenya, the name comes from the Gabbra language:

In the language of the Gabbra people who live near the site, the term Koobi Fora means a place of the commiphora and the source of myrrh...

KNM-ER 1813

KNM ER 1813 is a skull of the species Homo habilis. It was discovered in Koobi Fora, Kenya by Kamoya Kimeu in 1973, and is estimated to be 1.9 million years old.

KNM-ER 1805

KNM ER 1805 is the catalog number given to several pieces of a fossilized skull of the species Homo habilis. It was discovered in Koobi Fora, Kenya in 1974. The designation indicates specimen 1805, collected from the east shore of Lake Rudolf for the Kenya National Museums.

KNM ER 3733

KNM ER 3733 is a fossilized hominid cranium of the extinct hominid Homo ergaster, which is interchangeably referred to as Homo erectus. It was discovered in 1975 in Koobi Fora, Kenya, right next to Lake Turkana, by Bernard Ngeneo, a field worker for Richard Leakey. Its geographic location is not to be confused with that of KNM WT 15000, Turkana Boy, also known as Nariokotome Boy, who was also found near Lake Turkana nine years later in 1984.

Bouri Formation

The Bouri Formation is a sequence of sedimentary deposits that is the source of australopithecine and Homo fossils, artifacts, and bones of large mammals with cut marks from butchery with tools by early hominins. It is located in the Middle Awash Valley, in Ethiopia, East Africa, and is a part of the Afar Depression that has provided rich human fossil sites such as Gona and Hadar.

Lokitaung Place in Turkana County, Kenya

Lokitaung is a settlement in Kenya's Turkana County, a few miles inland of northwest Lake Turkana. Lokitaung is the site of the 36-million year old Lokitaung Basalt lava flows, which lay atop Cretaceous sediments including dinosaur bones. The basalts are over 1 kilometer thick, and approximately 100 kilometers wide.

Karsa may refer to:

Loxodonta exoptata is an extinct species of elephant in the genus Loxodonta, from Africa. A 2009 study suggested that Loxodonta exoptata gave rise to L. atlantica, which gave rise to L. africana. The molars of L. exoptata are distinguished from later loxodonts by the lower plate number and their specialized enamel loops. Fossil remains of L. exoptata have been found at Pliocene sites in eastern Africa including Laetoli and Koobi Fora.

Turkana Basin

The greater Turkana Basin in East Africa determines a large endorheic basin, a drainage basin with no outflow centered around the north-southwards directed Gregory Rift system in Kenya and southern Ethiopia. The deepest point of the basin is the endorheic Lake Turkana, a brackish Soda lake with a very high ecological productivity in the Gregory Rift.

Kay Behrensmeyer American taphonomist and paleoecologist

Anna Katherine "Kay" Behrensmeyer is an American taphonomist and paleoecologist. She is a pioneer in the study of the fossil records of terrestrial ecosystems and engages in geological and paleontological field research into the ecological context of human evolution in East Africa. She is Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology in the Department of Paleobiology at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). At the museum, she is co-director of the Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems program and an associate of the Human Origins Program.

Loriu Plateau plateau in Kenya

Loriu Plateau is an elevated Precambrian bedrock exposure at the southwest margin of Lake Turkana in Kenya. The plateau is only seasonally habitable due to aridity and was once home to fauna otherwise rare in Turkana. Loriu is west of and adjacent to the Barrier Volcano at the southernmost portion of Lake Turkana.

Kanapoi

Kanapoi is a paleontological site in the Kenyan Rift Valley, to the southwest of Lake Turkana. Fossils were first found at Kanapoi in the 1960s by a Harvard expedition, and later by expeditions from the National Museums of Kenya.

Aiyangiyang

Aiyangiyang is a basin in southern Turkana, Kenya, southeast of Lodwar. It is known by nomadic pastoralists for its seasonal water availability, and is an important archaeological and paleontological site with artifacts and remains from the African Middle and Late Stone Ages.

Francis Harold Brown US geologist

Francis Harold Brown was an American geologist and geochemist who mapped the sedimentary sequence and geology of most of the Turkana Basin in Kenya, east Africa. Brown introduced single-crystal argon-argon and potassium-argon dating into the Turkana Basin, resolving disputes over the age of Kenyanthropus platyops and other fossils.

The KBS Tuff is an ash layer in East African Rift Valley sediments, derived from a volcanic eruption that occurred approximately 1.87 million years ago (Ma). The tuff is widely distributed geographically, and marks a significant transition between water flow and associated environmental conditions around Lake Turkana shortly after 2 Ma.

References

  1. 1 2 McDougall, Ian (1985). "K-Ar and 40Ar/39Ar dating of the hominid-bearing Pliocene-Pleistocene sequence at Koobi Fora, Lake Turkana, northern Kenya". Geological Society of America Bulletin. 96 (2): 159. doi:10.1130/0016-7606(1985)96<159:kaadot>2.0.co;2.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Tablino, Paul (1999). The Gabra: Camel Nomads of Northern Kenya. Paulines Publications Africa. ISBN   9789966214386 . Retrieved 19 December 2015.
  3. ↑ Toth, Patrick (1982). The Stone Technologies of Early Hominids at Koobi Fora, Kenya: An Experimental Approach. University of California, Berkeley. pp. 219–222.
  4. 1 2 Haileab, Bereket; Gathogo, Patrick (2004). "Gombe Group basalts and initiation of Pliocene deposition in the Turkana depression, northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia". Geological Magazine. 141: 41. doi:10.1017/s001675680300815x.
  5. ↑ Coffing, Katharine (1994). "Four-Million-Year-Old Hominids From East Lake Turkana, Kenya". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 93 (1): 55–65. doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330930104. PMID   8141242.
  6. ↑ Briggs, Philip (2013). DK Eyewitness Travel Guide Kenya. DK Eyewitness Travel. p. 355.
  7. ↑ Barthelme, John Webster (1985). Fisher-hunters and Neolithic pastoralists in east Turkana, Kenya. BAR International Series.
  8. ↑ Kenya Native Affairs Department (1935). Annual Report on Native Affairs. Government Printer South Africa.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.