The Suguta Valley, also known as the Suguta Mud Flats, is an arid part of the Great Rift Valley in Kenya (Africa), directly south of Lake Turkana.
Location
The Suguta valley today is one of the driest parts of Kenya, with annual rainfall below .
Lake Logipi seasonally fills a small part of the northern end of the valley.
The valley has a relatively flat floor about above sea level.
It is bordered by land to the east and west rising to and dotted with volcanic cinder cones.
The
Barrier Volcano, a broad volcanic complex, separates the valley from Lake Turkana.
Mount Ngiro rises to the east of the Suguta valley.
The Losiolo Escarpment, rising above the valley floor on the east side near
Maralal provides one of the most dramatic views of the Kenyan rift valley.
Namarunu, a volcano active in historic times, extends into the valley from the western wall.
The Suguta Valley lies along the axis of the Gregory Rift, which has been faulting in this area since the Pliocene along a belt wide. The belt lies between the Ngiro basement uplift to the east and the Loriu Plateau to the west and is thicker in the eastern part. Exposed volcanic rocks include , and Volcanic ash formed between 4.2 and 3.8 million years ago, the products of Trachyte volcanism from 3,8 to 2.6 million years ago and basaltic and rocks created from that period until the present.
In the early Pliocene the least horizontal stress direction - the direction of rift expansion - was NW-SE.
Hydrology
Lake Suguta once filled the valley, at times overflowing into Lake Turkana.
The lake level rose and fell several times in the last 18,000 years due to changes in rainfall during the African Humid Period that lasted from 14,800 to 5,500 years ago.
The lake level began to drop about 8,000 years ago, falling by .
The valley is drained by a seasonal stream, the Suguta River, which in the rainy season forms the temporary Lake Alablad, a playa lake that combines with Lake Logipi at the northern end of the valley.
In the dry season saline hot springs help maintain water levels in Lake Logipi, which is about to at its greatest depth, about wide and wide.
Ecology
The saline waters provide food for cyano-bacteria and other plankton, which in turn are food for
.
Due to the inaccessibility and harsh climate, with high temperatures, only the most determined tourists visit the site.
The valley is used as a hide-out by Pokot people and Turkana people cattle rustlers. It is considered a "no go" region by the police due to the extremely harsh environment and familiarity of the rustlers with the terrain.
November 2012 Police Killings
In November 2012 over 40
Kenya Police officers and reservists
were killed in the Suguta Valley near
Baragoi while on a mission to recover stolen cattle.
Sources
