Lake Chala, also known as Lake Challa, is a

crater lake Crater Lake ( Klamath: ''Giiwas'') is a volcanic crater lake in south-central Oregon in the western United States. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and is famous for its deep blue color and water clarity. The lake partly fill ...

that straddles the border between

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

and

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

. The lake formed approximately 250,000 years ago. The lake is east of Mount Kilimanjaro, north of

Taveta, Kenya Taveta is a town in the Taita-Taveta County, Kenya. Location Taveta town is wedged into a projection of Kenyan territory bordered on the north and west by Tanzania. The town lies at the border with Tanzania, directly across from the town of H ...

, and east of

Rombo District Rombo is one of the seven districts of the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania. The district covers an area of . It is bordered to the north and east by Kenya, to the west by the Siha District and Hai District, and to the south by the Moshi Rural D ...

. The lake is surrounded by a steep crater rim with a maximum height of . Lake Chala's average annual rainfall is about . The lake surface has an average annual evaporation of near . Approximately 80 percent of the lake's inflow comes from groundwater, which is derived mostly from rainfall in the

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial ...

zone of Mount Kilimanjaro at an elevation of . It takes about 3 months for groundwater to reach the lake. The groundwater flowed into the lake at an estimated annual volume of from 1964 through 1977.

Ecology

The only native fish in this lake is the Lake Chala tilapia (''Oreochromis hunteri''), which is found nowhere else in the world. It is considered critically endangered by the IUCN, and now greatly outnumbered by other

tilapia Tilapia ( ) is the common name for nearly a hundred species of cichlid fish from the coelotilapine, coptodonine, heterotilapine, oreochromine, pelmatolapiine, and tilapiine tribes (formerly all were "Tilapiini"), with the economically most ...

species that have been introduced to Lake Chala. An 18 year old British woman was killed in 2002 by a relatively small

Nile crocodile The Nile crocodile (''Crocodylus niloticus'') is a large crocodilian native to freshwater habitats in Africa, where it is present in 26 countries. It is widely distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa, occurring mostly in the central, eastern, ...

while swimming at night in the lake. A few days later, the Kenya Police Service said that the lake was "infested" with crocodiles, while the

Kenya Wildlife Service Kenya Wildlife Service is a state corporation under the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife established by an act of Parliament; Wildlife Conservation and Management Act CAP 376, of 1989, now repealed and replaced by the Wildlife Conservation and Ma ...

said, "Crocodiles are found in Lake Chala and it is not regarded as safe to swim at all."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chala Lakes of Kenya Lakes of Tanzania Geography of Kilimanjaro Region

Ecology

See also

References