Chloride budgets in transient lakes: Lakes Baringo, Naivasha, and Turkana

Abstract

Lakes Baringo, Naivasha, and Turkana, East Africa, are being filled with sediment at a rapid rate. A finite-difference numerical model that includes diffusion and advection terms can describe the chemical evolution of chloride in lake water or pore water in these or other shoaling lakes. For the cases of Baringo and Turkana this model suggests chloride accumulation times on the order of 100-200 and 3,000-5,000 yr. Stable isotopic studies of waters from the East African Rift show that these three lakes are highly evaporated and that Lake Naivasha is the source of water of the 01 Oserian geothermal field.