Suguta River

Last updated
Suguta River
Location
CountryKenya
Physical characteristics
Mouth  
  coordinates
1°58′20″N36°30′35″E / 1.972343°N 36.509628°E / 1.972343; 36.509628

The Suguta River is a seasonal river in the Great Rift Valley in Kenya (Africa), directly south of Lake Turkana. It flows northward through the Suguta Valley in the rainy season, forming the temporary Lake Alablad, a dry lake that combines with Lake Logipi at the northern end of the valley. [1]

The Suguta River originates in a stream of near-boiling water that emerges from the side of Mount Silali, an extinct volcano. [2] Some geologists speculate that the Kapedo hot spring, which drops through a set of waterfalls to the Suguta River, is the outlet from Lake Baringo 60 kilometres (37 mi) to the south. [3] At one point the Suguta River passes between two volcanoes and is fed from both sides by hot springs. [4]

In places the banks of the Suguta River are lined with palms. [5] The river and its tributaries are home to a cichlid, the Suguta tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus sugutae). Although the river dries up after the rainy season, the fish survive in pools. [6] The river is also home to numerous crocodiles. [3] Large flocks of flamingos inhabit the edge of the river. [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Baringo</span> 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: the Molo, Perkerra and Ol Arabel. It 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rift Valley Province</span> Province of Kenya

Rift Valley Province of Kenya, bordering Uganda, was one of Kenya's eight provinces, before the 2013 Kenyan general election. Rift Valley Province was the largest and one of the most economically important provinces in Kenya. It was dominated by the Kenya Rift Valley which passes through it and gives the province its name. According to the 2009 Census, the former province covered an area of 182,505.1 square kilometres and would have had a population of 10,006,805, making it the largest and most populous province in the country. The bulk of the provincial population inhabited a strip between former Nairobi and Nyanza Province. The capital was the town of Nakuru.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rift Valley lakes</span> Group of lakes in the East African Rift

The Rift Valley lakes are a series of lakes in the East African Rift valley that runs through eastern Africa from Ethiopia in the north to Malawi in the south, and includes the African Great Lakes in the south. These include some of the world's oldest lakes, deepest lakes, largest lakes by area, and largest lakes by volume. Many are freshwater ecoregions of great biodiversity, while others are alkaline "soda lakes" supporting highly specialised organisms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Bogoria</span>

Lake Bogoria is a saline, alkaline lake that lies in a volcanic region in a half-graben basin south of Lake Baringo, Kenya, a little north of the equator. Lake Bogoria, like Lake Nakuru, Lake Elementeita, and Lake Magadi further south in the Rift Valley, and Lake Logipi to the north, is home at times to one of the world's largest populations of lesser flamingos. The lake is a Ramsar site and Lake Bogoria National Reserve has been a protected National Reserve since November 29, 1973. Lake Bogoria is shallow, and is about 34 km long by 3.5 km wide, with a drainage basin of 700 km2. It is Located in Baringo County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Magadi</span> Lake Kajiado County, Kenya

Lake Magadi is the southernmost lake in the Kenyan Rift Valley, lying in a catchment of faulted volcanic rocks, north of Tanzania's Lake Natron. During the dry season, it is 80% covered by soda and is well known for its wading birds, including flamingos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luangwa River</span> River in Zambia

The Luangwa River is one of the major tributaries of the Zambezi River, and one of the four biggest rivers of Zambia. The river generally floods in the rainy season and then falls considerably in the dry season. It is one of the biggest unaltered rivers in Southern Africa and the 52,000 square kilometres (20,000 sq mi) that make up the surrounding valley are home to abundant wildlife.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Nakuru</span> Alkaline lake in Rift valley

Lake Nakuru is one of the Rift Valley lakes, located at an elevation of 1,754 m (5,755 ft) above sea level. It lies to the south of Nakuru, in the rift valley of Kenya and is protected by Lake Nakuru National Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suguta Valley</span>

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.

Lake Logipi is a saline, alkaline lake that lies at the northern end of the arid Suguta Valley in the northern Kenya Rift. It is separated from Lake Turkana by the Barrier volcanic complex, a group of young volcanoes that last erupted during the late 19th century or early 20th century. Saline hot springs discharge on the northern shoreline of Lake Logipi and at Cathedral Rocks near its southern limit, and help to maintain water at times of extreme aridity. During the rainy season, the lake is also recharged from the Suguta River which flows northward along the Suguta Valley, periodically forming a temporary lake that unites with Logipi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Namarunu</span> Shield volcano in Kenya

Namarunu is a shield volcano located in the Great Rift Valley, Kenya.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Elmenteita</span> Lake in Kenya

Lake Elmenteita is a soda lake, in the Great Rift Valley, about 120 km northwest of Nairobi, Kenya.

The Barrier is an active shield volcano located in the north of Kenya. It is last known to have erupted in 1921.

Kapedo is a trading center in the Turkana East sub-county of Turkana County, in Kenya's former Rift Valley Province. It is a 5-hour drive from Nakuru town.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Rift Valley, Kenya</span> Part of an intra-continental ridge system that runs through Kenya

The Great Rift Valley is part of an intra-continental ridge system that runs through Kenya from north to south. It is part of the Gregory Rift, the eastern branch of the East African Rift, which starts in Tanzania to the south and continues northward into Ethiopia. It was formed on the "Kenyan Dome" a geographical upwelling created by the interactions of three major tectonics: the Arabian, Nubian, and Somalian plates. In the past, it was seen as part of a "Great Rift Valley" that ran from Madagascar to Syria. Most of the valley falls within the former Rift Valley Province.

Mount Silali is a dormant volcano in the Gregory Rift Valley, near Kapedo, Kenya. Silali is south of the Suguta Valley, which reaches northward to Lake Turkana, and is about 70 kilometres (43 mi) north of Lake Baringo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gregory Rift</span>

The Gregory Rift is the eastern branch of the East African Rift fracture system. The rift is being caused by the separation of the Somali plate from the Nubian plate, driven by a thermal plume. Although the term is sometimes used in the narrow sense of the Kenyan Rift, the larger definition of the Gregory Rift is the set of faults and grabens extending southward from the Gulf of Aden through Ethiopia and Kenya into Northern Tanzania, passing over the local uplifts of the Ethiopian and Kenyan domes. Ancient fossils of early hominins, the ancestors of humans, have been found in the southern part of the Gregory Rift.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Perkerra River</span> River in Kenya

The Perkerra River is a river in the Great Rift Valley in Kenya that feeds the freshwater Lake Baringo. It is the only perennial river in the arid and semi-arid lands of the Baringo County. The Perkerra river supplies water to the Perkerra Irrigation Scheme in the Jemps flats near Marigat Township, just south of the lake.

Ol Arabel is a river in the Great Rift Valley of Kenya that feeds Lake Baringo. It gives its name to a forest covering its headwaters and to a region.

Ngenyn is a Late Stone Age and/or a Savanna Pastoral Neolithic archaeological site located in the Kapthurin River Basin, which is part of the Tugen Hills, west of Lake Baringo. It falls within the Baringo County in north central Kenya. The occupied area is situated on the floodplain of the River Ndau's confluence with the Sekutionnen River, on a widespread terrace called the Low Terrace, the top of which is about 3m above the level of the modern river. The site was initially discovered by Louis Leakey in 1969. It was visible as a large exposure of bones, stone tools and pottery eroding out of the terrace. The site was excavated in the late 1970s as part of Francoise Hivernel's PhD research. Ngenyn remains the only Late Holocene site excavated in the Lake Baringo Basin and in general very little archaeological work has been done on the Late Holocene within the Baringo County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Suguta</span>

Lake Suguta is a former lake in Africa. It formed in the Suguta Valley, which is part of the East African Rift, south of Lake Turkana during the Holocene African humid period.

References

  1. Mathea, Chege David (November 1, 2009). "OUR LAKES, OUR FUTURE" (PDF). International Lake Environment Committee Foundation. p. 18. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 26, 2012. Retrieved 2011-12-29.
  2. "About the Baringo Region". North Rift Tourism. Retrieved 2012-04-09.
  3. 1 2 Keith Bain; Pippa De Bruyn; Philip Briggs; Lizzie Williams (2010). Frommer's Kenya and Tanzania. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN   978-0470285589.
  4. "Logipi Geyser". WonderMondo. Retrieved 2012-04-09.
  5. "SAND DUNES OF THE SUGUTA VALLEY". Lady Lori. Retrieved 2012-04-09.
  6. Daniel O. Okeyo. "TAXONOMY, COMMON NAMES AND DISTRIBUTION OF FISH IN THE EASTERN ARM OF THE RIFT VALLEY DRAINAGE, KENYA" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-04-09.[ permanent dead link ]
  7. "Suguta Valley Crossing". Big Earth. Retrieved 2012-04-09.