Late Quaternary Lake-level fluctuations and environments of the northern Rift valley and Afar region (Ethiopia and Djibouti)

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Abstract

The late Quaternary limnology of the Rift and Afar lakes is compared from two viewpoints: their record of lake-level fluctuations, and the evolution of their sedimentary facies and biocoenoses. The similarities and divergences are examined in the light of the volcano-tectonic and hydrological setting of the lake basins. All the lakes lie on an altitudinal gradient of precipitation and evaporation leading from the Ziway-Shala Basin, near the highest part of the Main Ethiopian Rift floor, to the desert basins of Afrera and Asal. The contribution of surface runoff relative to groundwater inflow decreases in the same. direction.

Clear parallels exist between the main stages in the evolution of all the lakes. At least two distinct lacustral phases during the late Pleistocene were followed by a very arid period during which the lakes contracted to their present extent or less. An important early to mid-Holocene period of high lake levels, beginning ca. 10,000 B.P. in both regions, was followed by a clearly defined regression between 6,000 and 4,000 B.P.

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