Lake Bogoria, Kenya: Hot and warm springs, geysers and Holocene stromatolites

I carried out the first regional geological survey of the central Gregory Rift Valley in Kenya in 1958–60, and review here the numerous subsequent specialised studies focused on the unique endoreic Lake Bogoria (formerly Hannington), studies which embraced the sedimentology of the Holocene sediments around the lake shores, the hot-spring and geyser activities and the coring of the sediments beneath the lake. I focus on the occurrences of stromatolites in a hydrothermal environment, both in two closely spaced late Holocene (~ 4500 yr BP) generations at the lake margin, associated with algae and cyanobacteria, which represent a final more humid climatic phase after the several interglacial more humid phases (also represented by stromatolite occurrences in other rift valley lakes); and also at present being formed, at the edge of the now highly saline lake, in the very hot springs in association with thermophilic bacteria and with silica. I briefly mention the older occurrences in Lake Magadi to the south, which are quite different; and form three generations; and also present-day occurrences of stromatolites in a flood-plain environment, unlike the present-day environment at Lake Bogoria. Other stromatolite occurrences are mentioned, around Lake Turkana and the former lake in the Suguta River valley to the north. I suggest that the hot waterfall at Kapedo, at the head of the Suguta River, and the central island of Ol Kokwe (with hot springs, amidst the fresh water Lake Baringo) could well be investigated for stromatolite occurrences. Lake Bogoria, an empty wilderness occupied only by flamingos when I mapped it, is now more accessible and provides a unique open-air laboratory for such researches, but like all the Rift Valley lakes, is unique, sui generis. Results of detailed investigations of the type reviewed here, can only be applied to other occurrences of stromatolites elsewhere in the rift system or beyond the rift system with reservation.