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Turkana Basin
An '' Acacia'' tree in the Kokiselei river, northern Kenya The greater Turkana Basin in East Africa (mainly northwestern Kenya and southern Ethiopia, smaller parts of eastern Uganda and southeastern South Sudan) determines a large endorheic basin, a drainage basin with no outflow centered around the north-southwards directed Gregory Rift system in Kenya and southern Ethiopia. The deepest point of the basin is the endorheic Lake Turkana, a brackish soda lake with a very high ecological productivity in the Gregory Rift. A narrower definition for the term ''Turkana Basin'' is also in widespread use and means Lake Turkana and its environment within the confines of the Gregory Rift in Kenya and Ethiopia. This includes the lower Omo River valley in Ethiopia. The Basin in the narrower definition is a site of geological subsidence containing one of the most continuous and temporally well controlled fossil records of the Plio-PleistoceneFeibel, C., 2011, "A Geological History of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Koobi Fora
Koobi Fora refers primarily to a region around Koobi Fora Ridge, located on the eastern shore of Lake Turkana in the territory of the nomadic Gabbra people. According to the National Museums of Kenya, the name comes from the Gabbra language: The ridge itself is an outcrop of mainly Pliocene/Pleistocene sediments. It is composed of claystones, siltstones, and sandstones that preserve numerous fossils of terrestrial mammals, including early hominin species. Presently, the ridge is being eroded into a badlands terrain by a series of ephemeral rivers that drain into the northeast portion of modern Lake Turkana. In 1968 Richard Leakey established the Koobi Fora Base Camp on a large sandspit projecting into the lake near the ridge, which he called the Koobi Fora Spit. Consequently, the government of Kenya in 1973 reserved the region as Sibiloi National Park, establishing a headquarters for the National Museums of Kenya on Koobi Fora Spit. The reserve is well-maintained and i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Acacia At Sunset In The Kokiselei River Turkana Northern Kenya
''Acacia'', commonly known as wattles or acacias, is a genus of about of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa, South America, and Australasia, but is now reserved for species mainly from Australia, with others from New Guinea, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean. The genus name is Neo-Latin, borrowed from Koine Greek (), a term used in antiquity to describe a preparation extracted from ''Vachellia nilotica'', the original type species. Several species of ''Acacia'' have been introduced to various parts of the world, and two million hectares of commercial plantations have been established. Description Plants in the genus ''Acacia'' are shrubs or trees with Glossary of leaf morphology#bipinnate, bipinnate leaves, the mature leaves sometimes reduced to phyllodes or rarely absent. There are 2 small stipules at the base of the leaf, but sometimes fall off as the leaf ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Evolutionary Anthropology
Evolutionary anthropology, the interdisciplinary study of the human evolution, evolution of human physiology and human behaviour and of the relation between hominids and non-hominid primates, builds on natural science and on social science. Various fields and disciplines of evolutionary anthropology include: * human evolution and anthropogeny * paleoanthropology and paleontology of both human and non-human primates * primatology and primate ethology * the sociocultural evolution of human behavior, including phylogenetic approaches to historical linguistics * the cultural anthropology and sociology of humans * the archaeological study of human technology and of its changes over time and space * human evolutionary genetics and changes in the human genome over time * the neuroscience, endocrinology, and neuroanthropology of human and primate cognition, culture, actions and abilities * human behavioural ecology and the interaction between humans and the environment * studies of human ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Turkana People
The Turkana are a Nilotic people native to the Turkana County in northwest Kenya, a semi-arid climate region bordering Lake Turkana in the east, Pokot, Rendille and Samburu people to the south, Uganda to the west, South Sudan to the north-west ( Didinga and Toposa ) and Ethiopia to the north. Overview According to the 2009 Kenyan census, Turkana number 1,016,174, or 2.14% of the Kenyan population, making the Turkana the third largest Nilotic ethnic group in Kenya, after the Kalenjin and the Luo, slightly more numerous than the Maasai, and the tenth largest ethnicity in all of Kenya. Although this figure was initially controversial and rejected as too large by the then Planning Minister Wycliffe Oparanya, a court ruling (February 7, 2012) by Justice Mohammed Warsame stated that the Kenyan government accepts the 2009 census figures for Turkana. They refer to themselves as ''ŋiTurkana'' (i.e. ngiTurkana, meaning the Turkana, or people of Turkan) and to their land as "T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Gibe River
The Gibe River (also Great Gibe River) is by far the largest tributary of the Omo River in southwestern Ethiopia and flows generally south-southeast. The confluence of the Gibe River with the smaller Wabe River forms the Omo River. The whole drainage basin is sometimes referred to as the ''Omo-Gibe River Basin'' with the Gibe and the Omo draining the (respectively) upper and lower reaches. In common with most of Ethiopia's rivers, the Gibe is not navigable. Overview The Gibe rises at an elevation of more than 2,000 m north of Bila town, west of the Chomen swamp from Gudeya Bila woreda, which is located in the East Welega Zone, Oromia Region. The river then flows generally to the southeast towards its confluence with the Wabe River. Its tributaries include the Amara, Alanga, and Gilgel Gibe rivers. The southern drainage area of the Gibe includes the Gibe region, site of a number of historic kingdoms of the Oromo and the Sidama people. The Gibe River terminates at an el ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Kerio River
The Kerio River is a river in Turkana County, Kenya. It flows northward into Lake Turkana. It is one of the longest rivers in Kenya (about ), originating near the equator. Course The Kerio River rises on the north slopes of the Amasya Hills to the west of Lake Bogoria. It flows northward through the Kerio Valley between Tugen Hills and Elgeyo Escarpment. The Elgeyo Escarpment rises to over above the Kerio valley in places. The Kerio continues northward, often through deep and narrow valleys, to enter Lake Turkana in a delta just south of the delta formed by the Turkwel and Lokichar rivers. The Kerio and Turkwel contribute 98% of the river water flowing into Lake Turkana on Kenyan territory (which makes up only 2% of the total riverine inflow). In their lower courses both these rivers are seasonal. Near its source the Kerio River is fed by two major tributaries flowing down the Elgeyo Escarpment: Arror River, and Embobut River. Land use The Lake Kamnarok National Reserve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Turkwel River
The Turkwel River (sometimes spelled Turkwell River) is a river flowing from Mount Elgon on the border of Kenya and Uganda to Lake Turkana. The river is called the Suam River from its source to the border at Turkana County of Kenya. The name Turkwel is derived from the Turkana name for the river, ''Tir-kol'', which means a river that "withstands the wilderness". The Turkwel begins on the lush green slopes of Mount Elgon and the Cherangani Hills, then traverses the Southern Turkana Plains, crosses the Loturerei Desert near Lodwar and empties into the world's largest desert lake, Lake Turkana. The river's flow is seasonally varied, and flash floods in the rainy season also occur at times. The controversial Turkwel Dam was built by the Kenyan government from 1986 to 1991 with the help of France. The plan was to harness the waters of the Turkwel. The project was initially supposed to cost KSh. 4 billion, but ended up costing more than KSh. 20 billion. The dam partiall ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Intermittent River
Intermittent, temporary or seasonal rivers or streams cease to flow every year or at least twice every five years. Such rivers drain large arid and semi-arid areas, covering approximately a third of the Earth's surface. The extent of temporary rivers is increasing, as many formerly perennial rivers are becoming temporary because of increasing water demand, particularly for irrigation. Despite inconsistent water flow, intermittent rivers are considered land-forming agents in arid regions, as they are agents of significant deposition and erosion during flood events. The combination of dry crusted soils and the highly erosive energy of the rain cause sediment resuspension and transport to the coastal areas. They are among the aquatic habitats most altered by human activities. During the summer even under no flow conditions the point sources are still active such as the wastewater effluents, resulting in nutrients and organic pollutants accumulating in the sediment. Sediment ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Perennial River
A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long, large streams are usually called rivers, while smaller, less voluminous and more intermittent river, intermittent streams are known, amongst others, as brook, creek, rivulet, rill, run, tributary, feeder, freshet, narrow river, and streamlet. The flow of a stream is controlled by three inputs – surface runoff (from precipitation or meltwater), daylighting (streams), daylighted subterranean river, subterranean water, and surfaced groundwater (Spring (hydrology), spring water). The surface and subterranean water are highly variable between periods of rainfall. Groundwater, on the other hand, has a relatively constant input and is controlled more by long-term patterns of pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Acacia Sensu Lato
''Acacia sensu lato, s.l.'' (pronounced or ), known commonly as mimosa, acacia, thorntree or wattle, is a Polyphyly, polyphyletic genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae. It was described by the Sweden, Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1773 based on the African species ''Acacia nilotica'', now classified as ''Vachellia nilotica''. Many non-Australian species tend to be Thorns, spines and prickles, thorny. Most Australian acacias are not. All species are legume, pod-bearing, with sap and leaves often bearing large amounts of tannins and condensed tannins that historically found use as pharmaceuticals and preservatives. The genus ''Acacia'' constitutes, in its traditional circumspection, the second largest genus in Fabaceae (''Astragalus (plant), Astragalus'' being the largest), with roughly 1,300 species, about 960 of them native to Australia, with the remainder spread around the tropical to warm-temperate regions of both hemispher ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Chalbi Desert
The Chalbi Desert is a small desert in northern Kenya near the border with Ethiopia. It is east of Lake Turkana and contains North Horr. Marsabit is the closest major urban center. Etymology In the language of the Gabbra people, Chalbi means "bare, salty area". Location and description The Chalbi Desert is located in between Mount Marsabit and Lake Turkana. The area is 110 km long and 10 to 20 km wide and it extends over 100,000 km2. The area is composed of an ancient lake-bed, rocky surface and lava regions. The ancient lake-bed of Chalbi used to be a shallow lake around 10,000 to 11,000 years ago. The lava hills provide some altitudinal change in an otherwise plain region. The ground is a combination of dried mud and salt. When it rains, the ground becomes a soft, sticky surface. Chalbi desert has been recognized as an important geosite of Kenya. The preserved fossils of the area have been critical to the understanding of the Quaternary climate in East ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Allia Bay
The Allia Bay is a region on the east side of Lake Turkana in Kenya. The site is known for yielding its first hominid fossils in 1982, with further findings to this day, all of which have been identified as part of ''Australopithecus anamensis'' but possibly related to ''Australopithecus afarensis''. Notable people with findings at Allia Bay include: Richard Leakey, Meave Leakey, Craig Feibel, Ian McDougall, Alan Walker. Geography The geographic coordinates of Allia Bay are 3°35′4″N, 36°16′4″E. As a set of isolate exposures it forms the southernmost region of Koobi Fora. One of its distinct features is the ''c.''4.2 Ma "bone bed", which was likely a channel of the ancestral Omo River. Findings All of the specimens were found to be 3.9 to 4.4 million years old and were dated using 3 main methods: argon-argon dating, potassium-argon dating, and magnetostratigraphy. Leakey, Feibel, McDougall, and Walker were involved in the discovery of 12 new specimens, presumed to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
