Lake Bogoria, Kenya: soda, hot springs and about a million flamingoes

Lake Bogoria is a saline, alkaline, meromictic lake in a geothermally active part of the Kenya Rift Valley. Coring of the lake floor has shown two types of sedimentation – a shallow fan–deltaic clastic zone and a deeper zone with alternating organic muds and evaporites. The organic muds formed during periods of relatively high lake level and high microbial productivity, the evaporites during more arid phases. Analyses of the cores show many environmental fluctuations during the past 30000 years, related to regional climatic changes and to local tectonic and hydrological controls.     

Spatial and temporal geochemical variability in lacustrine sedimentation in the East African Rift System: Evidence from the Kenya Rift and regional analyses

Many previous studies on lacustrine basins in the East African Rift System have directed their attention to climatic controls on contemporary sedimentation or climate change as part of palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. In contrast, this research focuses on the impact of tectonism and volcanism on rift deposition and develops models that help to explain their roles and relative importance. The study focuses on the spatial and temporal variability in bulk sediment geochemistry from a diverse range of modern and ancient rift sediments through an analysis of 519 samples and 50 major and trace elements. The basins examined variously include, or have contained, wetlands and/or shallow to deep, fresh to hypersaline lakes. Substantial spatial variability is documented for Holocene to modern deposits in lakes Turkana, Baringo, Bogoria, Magadi and Malawi. Mio‐Pleistocene sediments in the Central Kenya Rift and Quaternary deposits of the southern Kenya Rift illustrate temporal variability. Tectonic and volcanic controls on geochemical variability are explained in terms of: (i) primary controlling factors (faulting, subsidence, uplift, volcanism, magma evolution and antecedent lithologies and landscapes); (ii) secondary controls (bedrock types, rift shoulder and axis elevations, accommodation space, meteoric and hydrothermal fluids and mantle CO ₂); and (iii) response factors (catchment area size, orographic rains, rain shadows, vegetation densities, erosion and weathering rates, and spring/runoff ratios). The models developed have, in turn, important implications for palaeoenvironmental interpretation in other depositional basins.     

Lake-groundwater relationships and fluid-rock interaction in the East African Rift Valley: isotopic evidence

The assessment of water resources in the Rift Valley environment is important for population, agriculture and energy-related issues and depends on a good understanding of the relationship between freshwater lakes and regional groundwater. This can be hampered by the amount of fluid-rock interaction which occurs throughout the rift, obscuring original hydrochemical signatures. However, O and H stable isotope ratios can be used as tracers of infiltration over sometimes considerable distances, while showing that the volcanic edifices of the rift floor have varying effects on groundwater flow patterns. Specific cases from Kenya and Ethiopia are considered, including Lakes Naivasha, Baringo, Awasa and Zwai.In addition to their physical tracing role, stable isotopes can reveal information about processes of fluid-rock interaction. The general lack of O isotope shifting in rift hydrothermal systems suggests a high water:rock ratio, with the implication that these systems are mature. Carbon isotope studies on the predominantly bicarbonate waters of the rift show how they evolve from dilute meteoric recharge to highly alkaline waters, via the widespread silicate hydrolysis promoted by the flux of mantle carbon dioxide which occurs in most parts of the rift. There appears to be only minor differences in the C cycle between Kenya and Ethiopia.     

现代碱湖对玛湖凹陷风城组沉积环境的启示

为了进一步了解玛湖凹陷下二叠统风城组沉积环境,通过现代碱湖和主要碱矿进行调研,系统梳理了现代碱湖沉积特征,并与风城组沉积特征进行了对比研究,提出了现代碱湖沉积对玛湖凹陷风城组沉积环境具有可对比性。研究结果表明:玛湖凹陷风城组沉积期为一大型碱湖盆地,与世界上典型碱湖特征基本相近,自生矿物、沉积组合与演化过程大致相同,为形成于半干旱气候环境的闭流盆地,含碱层段一般为浅水环境成因,是碳酸盐型湖水蒸发浓缩的产物,与碱层互层的暗色细粒岩石不全为深水沉积产物。     

敦密断裂带盆地群油页岩特征及成矿差异分析

古近纪敦密断裂带上分布一系列的含油页岩盆地群。根据盆地间构造-沉积充填、岩石组合和油页岩赋存特征,初步确认盆地群中油页岩沉积于湖盆鼎盛阶段,均形成于古近系始新统路特阶。盆地群间油页岩矿床特征存在明显的差别,由西南向东北,油页岩厚度逐渐变小,其沉积环境由深湖到半深湖,再到湖沼,而有机质来源则由湖泊生物为主,到湖泊生物和陆源有机质双向来源,过渡为以陆源高等植物为主。结合含油页岩层系形成于同一时期和相似的古气候背景下,盆地沉降和沉积充填作用是影响油页岩矿床差异的关键因素。长期处于欠补偿环境,可容纳空间大的湖盆利于巨厚油页岩的形成,随着可容纳空间的减少、陆源碎屑供给的增多,油页岩厚度减薄,分布也变得相对局限。深湖和湖沼成因油页岩品质较好,半深湖油页岩品质较差。     

Water quality and sediment geochemistry in lakes of Yunnan Province, southern China

 Yungui Plateau lakes in southwestern China are economically important, although few have been studied previously. Water and sediments of 24 lakes throughout Yunnan Province were sampled in October 1994. We describe the chemical and physical characteristics of Yunnan lakes, and address effects of regional geology and human influences on water quality and sediment type. Water quality differs between deep Yunnan lakes of tectonic origin and shallow solution basins. Shallow lakes generally have higher nutrient concentrations and appear to be more susceptible to riparian disturbance than deeper lakes. Shallow lakes with high macrophyte standing crops, nevertheless, exhibit nutrient-poor waters. Principal ions Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, and HCO₃ ^– reflect regional carbonate geology, except in Cheng Hai, which is a sodium bicarbonate lake. Specific conductance and δ¹⁸O are positively correlated, indicating that evaporation concentrates both solutes and ¹⁸O. Large, shallow lakes in southeastern Yunnan exhibit ¹⁸O-enriched waters because of substantial evaporation, whereas small, deep lakes are ¹⁸O-depleted. Lake waters are ¹⁸O-depleted in small, shallow basins that receive substantial rainwater input relative to their small volumes. ¹⁸O enrichment in Cheng Hai suggests that a recent 5-m water-level decline in this lake was caused by increased evaporation or diversion of freshwater inflow. Yunnan watersheds have undergone substantial deforestation, agricultural cultivation, soil erosion, and industrialization. Limnetic nutrient concentrations indicate that human activities have affected water quality. Organic matter content is low in sediments because of increased non-carbonate, clastic sediment yield from watersheds. Environmental policies are needed to balance ecological contraints with economic activities that impact water quality. Received: 1 July 1996 / Accepted: 2 October 1996     

The role of hydrothermal fluids in sedimentation in saline alkaline lakes: Evidence from Nasikie Engida,Kenya Rift Valley

Saline alkaline lakes that precipitate sodium carbonate evaporites are most common in volcanic terrains in semi‐arid environments. Processes that lead to trona precipitation are poorly understood compared to those in sulphate‐dominated and chloride‐dominated lake brines. Nasikie Engida (Little Magadi) in the southern Kenya Rift shows the initial stages of soda evaporite formation. This small shallow (<2 m deep; 7 km long) lake is recharged by alkaline hot springs and seasonal runoff but unlike neighbouring Lake Magadi is perennial. This study aims to understand modern sedimentary and geochemical processes in Nasikie Engida and to assess the importance of geothermal fluids in evaporite formation. Perennial hot‐spring inflow waters along the northern shoreline evaporate and become saturated with respect to nahcolite and trona, which precipitate in the southern part of the lake, up to 6 km from the hot springs. Nahcolite (NaHCO₃) forms bladed crystals that nucleate on the lake floor. Trona (Na₂CO₃·NaHCO₃·2H₂O) precipitates from more concentrated brines as rafts and as bottom‐nucleated shrubs of acicular crystals that coalesce laterally to form bedded trona. Many processes modify the fluid composition as it evolves. Silica is removed as gels and by early diagenetic reactions and diatoms. Sulphate is depleted by bacterial reduction. Potassium and chloride, of moderate concentration, remain conservative in the brine. Clastic sedimentation is relatively minor because of the predominant hydrothermal inflow. Nahcolite precipitates when and where pCO₂ is high, notably near sublacustrine spring discharge. Results from Nasikie Engida show that hot spring discharge has maintained the lake for at least 2 kyr, and that the evaporite formation is strongly influenced by local discharge of carbon dioxide. Brine evolution and evaporite deposition at Nasikie Engida help to explain conditions under which ancient sodium carbonate evaporites formed, including those in other East African rift basins, the Eocene Green River Formation (western USA), and elsewhere.     

Lacustrine source rock deposition in response to co-evolution of environments and organisms controlled by tectonic subsidence and climate, Bohai Bay Basin, China

Three Paleogene syn-rift intervals from the Bohai Bay Basin, the most petroliferous basin in China, were analyzed with sedimentological and geochemical techniques to characterize the lateral source rock heterogeneities, to reveal the environmental and ecological changes through geologic time and to construct depositional models for lacustrine source rocks under different tectonic and climatic conditions. The third (Es₃) and first (Es₁) members of the Eocene Shahejie Formation and the Oligocene Dongying Formation (Ed) display widely variable total organic carbon contents, hydrogen indices and visual kerogen compositions, suggesting changes in organic facies from deep to marginal sediments. Carefully selected deep-lake facies samples from any interval, however, display fairly uniform biomarker composition. These three intervals have distinctly different biomarker assemblages, which indicate weakly alkaline, freshwater lakes with a moderately deep thermocline during Es₃ deposition, alkaline-saline lakes with shallow chemocline during Es₁ deposition and acidic, freshwater lakes with deep, unstable thermocline during the deposition of the Dongying Formation. Such environmental changes corresponded to changes in subsidence rate and paleoclimate, from rapid subsidence and wet climate during Es₃ deposition, through slow subsidence and arid climate during Es₁ deposition to rapid subsidence and wet climate during Ed deposition and resulted in synchronous changes in terrigenous organic matter input, phytoplankton community and primary productivity. The co-evolution of environments and organisms controlled by tectonic subsidence and climate accounted for the deposition and distribution of high quality lacustrine source rocks with distinctly different geochemical characteristics. Most rift basins experienced changes in subsidence rates and possibly changes in climates during their syn-rift evolutions. The models constructed in this paper may have important implications for source rock prediction in other lacustrine rift basins.     

Climatic vs. tectonic signals in a continental extensional basin (Teruel,NE Spain) from stable isotope (δ18O) and sequence stratigraphical evolution

Alluvial fans and shallow carbonate lakes interfered in the Teruel half‐graben during the Late Miocene–Pliocene. Tectonic influence is recorded in alluvial and lacustrine–palustrine successions, with long‐term climate changes being recorded in detail in the isotopic signatures of carbonates. Episodes of tectonic activity induced alluvial fan progradation and lake retraction in the whole basin. Three lacustrine stages have been identified, which support the idea that climate also exerted an important control on sedimentation. The transition between stages 1 and 2 occurred during a tectonically calm episode due to an increase in aridity in the Early Turolian; small fans with source areas next to the lake margin prograded, inducing lake‐shore retraction. The transition from stage 2 to 3 was caused by the superimposition of increasing tectonic activity and aridity effects. Our study demonstrates that discrimination of allogenic factors controlling sedimentation in continental closed basins is possible using sequence stratigraphy in combination with other techniques such as geochemistry of carbonates.     

Age, distribution, tectonics, and eustatic controls of the Paranense and Caribbean marine transgressions in southern Bolivia and Argentina

Marine transgression onto the South American continent took place at least twice in the Miocene along distinct paleogeographic corridors. The first event occurred between 15 and 13 Ma and the second between 10 and 5? Ma. Each event has particular dominant variables (tectonism, eustacy, sediment accumulation rate) that permitted the preservation of the record and development of the sea on the continent. The 15–13 Ma transgression was tectonically and eustatically controlled, flooding older sedimentary accommodation zones on the South American plate during a global high sea level, whereas the 105? Ma event was predominantly tectonically controlled, generated by tectonic loading created in the Cordillera Oriental fold-and-thrust belt. A new 7.72±0.31 Ma ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar date from the Río Parapetí in Bolivia suggests that the 15–13 Ma transgression registered in Argentina produced no continental connection to the Caribbean transgression, registered in Bolivia, because of temporal constraints.     

Rockfall-Dammed Lakes in the Baikal Region: Evidence from the Past and Prospects for the Future

The mountain province of East Siberia, which includes the Baikal Rift system, is a zone of high tectonic and seismic hazard. Earthquakes and coseismic faulting are dangerous not only by themselves but also as far as they initiate rock collapse and downslope movement of unconsolidated deposits, which may block river valleys and produce rockfall-dammed lakes. Within some rifts of the rift system, evidence of past dammed lakes was discovered that arose instantly, in a geological sense, and flooded large areas of forest. In mountains around some rift basins, small living dammed lakes were encountered, as well as traces of catastrophic debris flows that may have accompanied breaching of earlier collapse-produced dams. Analysis of geomorphological setting in the region, especially in the Muya Rift Basin, revealed conditions favourable to hazardous origination of rockfall-dammed lakes. A large dammed lake may come into existence due to the collapse of bedrock over the narrow antecedent valley of Vitim in the Muya Rift. Preliminary estimates based upon data on the Vitim River discharge showed that the lake might form in as short as 27 days, though the rapidity of its formation, and hence the degree of the risk, can vary as a function of the highly variable amount of summer discharge of the river. Rockfall-dammed lakes may also originate in the floors of Chara and Tunka Rift Basins. Due to their rapid formation, lakes will bring about extensive flooding and cause danger to the taiga, railways and constructions in this populated developing area, and will cause degradation of the permafrost.     

A tectonic escape model for the formation of sedimentary basins in the Yangzhou block of the Lower Yangtze Region,Eastern China

This paper presents a tectonic escape model for the formation of sedimentary basins in the Yangzhou Block of the Lower Yangtze Region, Eastern China. Nine sedimentary basins are identified in which the Pukou Formation of the Upper Cretaceous has been deposited. From south to north, the nine sedimentary basins are named: Wangjing, Qianshan, Wuwei, Nanxuan, Changzhou, Jurong, Nanjing, Quanjiao and Subei basins. They form a wedge-shape fragment (the Yangzhou Block) occupying an area of 100,000 km² in the Lower Yangtze Region. The two side boundaries of the Yangzhou Block are the strike-slip Tanlu Fault and the strike-slip Quangjiao–Xiangshui Fault on the northwest and the strike-slip Qingyang–Nantong Fault on the southeast. The wide end of the wedge faces the Southern Yellow Sea in the northeast and the narrow end contacts the Dabie Block in the southwest.During the Early Mesozoic, collision between the Yangtze Block and the North China Block resulted in the formation of the Qinling–Dabie Orogenic Belt and caused the Lower Yangtze Region to become a foreland basin with many strike-slip faults. During the Late Mesozoic, wide spread extension in Eastern China and shortening in Qinling/Dabie Shan and in the Huaying Shan region resulted following establishment of an Andean-type arc margin to the east of the Southern Yellow Sea area, when ‘Greater Japan’ collided with Asia. Consequently, the wedge-shaped Yangzhou Block escaped tectonically toward the northeast and formed distinctive geological features in nine sedimentary basins during Pukou time in the Late Cretaceous. These geological features are reflected in basin spatial distributions, basin geometries, sedimentary facies, sediment thicknesses, sedimentary environments, and the petrology of fanglomerates and sandstones. These basins are part of a large population of arc-crestal rifts formed on top of that Andean arc.The proposed tectonic escape model could be useful in petroleum exploration and mining in the region.     

Paleoclimatic estimates from water and energy budgets of East African Lakes

The Turkana, Nakuru-Elmenteita, and Naivasha basins in the Rift Valley of East Africa experienced high water levels during the period of 10,000–7000 yr B.P. Analyses of the modern hydrologic and energy budgets for these basins, along with that of Lake Victoria, were used to infer the amount of precipitation that would have been required to maintain the enlarged paleolakes of the early Holocene. Precipitation must have been at least 150–300 mm/yr (15 to 35%) above the modern average. The precipitation estimates were fairly consistent among the various basins, but no quantitative estimate was made for the additional precipitation required to account for overflow from the Rift Valley lake basins. Discharge from the Lake Victoria basin around 1880 A.D. was considerably above the more recent average, and the increased discharge into the White Nile for that period might have been similar to that of the early Holocene. A sensitivity analysis showed that temperature changes were probably not too important for changing the hydrologic-energy budget; changes of albedo, Bowen ratio, and cloudiness were likely to have been of greater importance.     

Muddy deltas in freshwater lakes, and tectonism in the Upper Carboniferous Coalfield of NE England

ABSTRACT
The Westphalian B sediments of NE England were deposited on part of a coastal plain with subdued relief. Most of the fine-grained sediments were deposited by small fluvially dominated muddy deltas which fed into shallow freshwater lakes in tectonic depressions a few metres deep and a few tens of kilometres across.
Coalfield lakes contained an abundant low-diversity bivalve fauna and existed for thousands of years before delta infill. Pro-delta clay rhythmites, formed by flood turbidites, coarsened up into wide silty mouth bars, which merged up into channel mouth sands, inversely-graded subaqueous levee deposits and sandy channel fills. Delta complexes were either abandoned below water level leaving a lake, or were colonized by plants, which resulted in trapping of suspended sediment and build-up of a seatearth to near water level when peats could accumulate. These swamps were analogous to the present raised bogs of Indonesia and had a lateral zonation of vegetation to a central low-diversity flora. Upwards reversal of this zonation and the succession of coals by lake sediments show that peat floras were killed by drowning due to rapid tectonic subsidence. Subsurface data show that seam splits and sand-body locations were tectonically controlled, and that the lake deltas in this area were distant from any major sand distributary.     

喀喇昆仑山-西昆仑山地区湖泊演化

由于地质构造的控制,本区湖泊可分为三个湖泊带。本区湖泊几乎均为封闭湖泊,在湖盆中有众多的古湖岸线遗迹。由古湖岸线的分布推算高湖面时期的古湖泊范围为本区总面积的10.6%,为今日湖泊面积的3.06倍。根据地貌、第四纪沉积和¹⁴C 测年数据分析,最高湖面时期即最高古湖岸线所围限的古湖泊出现的时期为40000—20000aB.P.,大致与末次冰期间冰段相当。本区湖泊退缩十分强烈,喀喇昆仑山以北的湖泊退缩速度大于喀喇昆仑山以南。     

Late Cenozoic fluvial dynamics of the River Tana,Kenya, an uplift dominated record

The Late Cenozoic development of the River Tana in Kenya has been reconstructed for its central reach near its confluence with the River Mutonga, which drains the Mount Kenya region. Age control for this system has been provided by K–Ar and Ar–Ar dating. Between 3.21 and 2.65 Ma a major updoming occurred, in relation to the formation of the Kenyan rift valley. The tilting related to this doming has been reconstructed from lava flows that preserve former river gradients. Linear projection of these trends to the current rift valley rim suggests a net updoming of the eastern Gregory Rift valley by at least ∼1 km during 3.21–2.65 Ma. In contrast, since 2.65 Ma the Tana system has been mainly subject to relatively minor epeirogenic uplift. Changing climatic conditions combined with continuing uplift yielded a typical staircase of strath terraces with at least 10 distinct levels. A more detailed reconstruction of the incision rates since 215 ka has been made, by correlating mineralogically fingerprinted volcaniclastic Tana deposits with dated tephras in a lake record. These volcaniclastic sediments were deposited during glacial periods, contemporaneous with lahars. The reconstructed incision rates for the three youngest terraces are ∼0.1–0.2 mm a⁻¹, thus considerably faster than the overall average rate of valley incision since the Mid-Pliocene, of 0.06 mm a⁻¹. A plausible uplift history has been reconstructed using the estimated ages of the Tana terraces and marine terraces on the Indian Ocean coastline. The result suggests an increase in the rate of incision by the River Tana at ∼0.9 Ma, an observation typical in most European river terrace staircases. The reconstructed Late Quaternary development of Tana valley indicates that a similar Quaternary uplift mechanism has operated in both Europe and East Kenya, suggesting a globally applicable process.     

肯尼亚地质矿产资源特征及找矿远景

通过对肯尼亚地层、构造、岩浆岩及矿产资源分布与特征的研究,认为肯尼亚基础地质工作程度总体偏低,缺乏系统的成矿规律研究。地层单元大致可分为前寒武系变质基底、上古生—中生界沉积岩系和新生界火山岩沉积岩系3类,大地构造位于非洲中东部泛非构造运动所形成的莫桑比克带上,区内经历了多期次构造岩浆活动。优势矿产资源为金、铜、煤和铁矿,其中金矿主要赋存于肯尼亚西南部地区前寒武系绿岩带和西部地区的莫桑比克带内,铜矿主要在肯尼亚裂谷两侧莫桑比克带内,煤矿主要蕴含于东南部地区的古生界上石炭统—二叠系页岩中。此外,肯尼亚油气资源潜力巨大,陆域产油地层主要为中新统中深湖相厚层泥岩,图尔卡纳湖及周边地区为重点勘探区域。     

中国东部新生代沉积盆地演化

新生代, 中国东部大陆边缘系统总体受到来自印度、澳大利亚、菲律宾和太平洋板块向欧亚板块下部俯冲碰撞的作用, 在大陆边缘形成一系列边缘海盆地和断陷-坳陷盆地, 主要发育松辽、渤海湾、江汉、苏北、东海、珠江口和北部湾等盆地.基于中国东部沉积盆地的中生代构造背景分析和新生代盆地的分布特征, 对其中的7个主要沉积盆地进行了详细的沉积序列和构造演化分析.通过周缘板块和郯庐断裂的构造演化、火山活动、低温热年代学、气候演变等对比分析, 中国东部沉积盆地的演化可划分为3个阶段: 古新世-始新世、渐新世-早中新世和晚中新世-第四纪.      

δ13C-δ18O Covariance: An Effective Indicator of Hydrological Closure for Lakes?

The correlation between the δ^13C and δ^13C-δ^18O in primary carbonates is affected by several factors such as hydrological balance, total CO2 concentrations, climatic condition and lake productivity. The influence of these factors on the δ^13C-δ^18O correlation may be different on different time scales. In this paper, two different-type lakes in southwestern China, Lake Erhai and Lake Chenghai, are selected to investigate the influence of climatic pattern on the δ^13C-δ^18O correlation and to evaluate the reliability of the δ^13C-δ^18O covariance as an indicator of hydrological closure. The results show that there exists good correlation between the δ^13C and δ^18O in Lake Erhai （overflowing open lake） and in Lake Chenghai （closed lake）. This suggests that the δ^13C-δ^18O covariance may be not an effective indicator of hydrological closure for lakes, especially on short time scales. On the one hand, a hydrologically open lake may display covariant δ^13C and δ^18O as a result of climatic influence. The particular alternate warm-dry and cold-wet climatic pattern in southwestern China may be the principal cause of the δ^13C-δ^18O covariance in Lake Erhai and Lake Chenghai. On the other hand, a hydrologically closed lake unnecessarily displays covariant trends between δ^13C and δ^18O because of the buffering effect of high CO2 concentration on the δ^13C shift in hyper-alkaline lakes. We should be prudent when we use the covariance between δ^13C and δ^18O to judge the hydrological closure of lake.