Lake Turkana
The Lake Turkana ( Lake Rudolf also ) is 6405 km ² the largest inland waters of Kenya, the northern part belongs to Ethiopia.
Its discoverer, Count Teleki gave him originally named Lake Rudolf after the Austrian heir to the throne Crown Prince Rudolf. The lake is located in the Rift Valley, a geological weakness zone of the earth's crust, in which divides the African continent. Around the lake is partly very active volcanoes rise. The climate in northern Kenya is highly arid and the vegetation thus very sparse. It is dominated by grasses, trees are rare.
The Turkana salt form more and more, as the lake with Omo, Turkwel and Kerio does have inflows, however, he loses his water via evaporation, thus increasing the mineral salts accumulate with time in the lake. As more water evaporates than added flows, the water level gradually decreases.
In the vicinity of Lake Turkana is also the first occurrence of a Homo rudolfensis, after its place of discovery ( Lake Rudolf ) was named, here are just the first sites of Turkanapithecus kalakolensis and Afropithecus turkanensis, two extinct primate species to around 17 million years lived here.
The Turkana - parks have been added to the list of UNESCO World Natural Heritage in 1997. In the protected area included is the Asked in 1973 by Kenya as a national park protection Sibiloi National Park. The lake is one of the provinces or districts administratively Rift Valley ( Turkana District ) and Eastern ( Marsabit District ).
Geography
The lake has three major islands: North Iceland, Iceland Central and South Iceland. Close to South Iceland are four smaller islands: Enwoiti, Nanet, Ekinyang and Nan.
Fauna
The soda- water of Lake Turkana is extremely rich in fish and algae. Numerous live Nile crocodiles on the banks. The largest predatory fish are the Tigersalmler, Hydrocynus vittatus and the Nile perch (Lates niloticus ), which can be partially over 100 kilograms.
The Lake Turkana is inhabited by almost 60 species of fish, nine more coming in its main tributary, the Omo, before. Endemic in the lake the tetras are Brycinus ferox, Brycinus minutus and Citharinus citharus intermedius, carp fish Barbus turkanae, the danios Neobola jeanneli and Neobola stellae, the catfish Chrysichthys turkana that lampeyes Aplocheilichthys rudolfianus and Aplocheilichthys jeanneli and the cichlids Haplochromis macconneli, Haplochromis rudolfianus, Haplochromis turkanae and Hemichromis exsul. Coptodon zillii was introduced by man. The largest predator is the giant perch Lates longispinis. Also endemic is the snail Gabbiella neumanni. The mussel Caelatura monceti comes out in the Lake Turkana also in Victoria. The non- endemic species shall notify the Turkana lake with the Nile and its tributaries, some carp fish with the rivers of the Ethiopian highlands and Somalia ( Shabelle and Juba ).
Fishing
Many residents live - like their ancestors - from fishing. The lake supplies annually about 1,000 tons of fish; the stocks of the most important food fish - Nile perch, tilapia and Tigersalmler - are declining. In order to keep this amount to the same level, more and more fish species are fished as a food fish. The lake is mainly used by fishermen in Kenya.
Damming of the Omo
The Lake Turkana, in addition to numerous seasonal inflows only a steady flow of the Omo. The Omo originates in Ethiopia and feeds the lake to around 90 percent. 600 km upstream Ethiopia is building the dam Gilgel Gibe III, which is expected to cost more than two billion dollars. He is after completion of the second largest dam in Africa after the Aswan Dam. The associated power plant is to promote Ethiopia's industrialization and made the country the electricity exporter. It is feared that as evaporation and seepage of dams significantly reduce the amount of water flowing to Lake Turkana: with serious environmental consequences, which could in turn have militant conflicts over resources result.