Loriu Plateau is an elevated

Precambrian The Precambrian ( ; or pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pC, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of t ...

bedrock exposure at the southwest margin of

Lake Turkana Lake Turkana () is a saline lake in the Kenyan Rift Valley, in northern Kenya, with its far northern end crossing into Ethiopia. It is the world's largest permanent desert lake and the world's largest alkaline lake. By volume it is the world ...

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

. The plateau is only seasonally habitable due to aridity and was once home to fauna otherwise rare in Turkana. Loriu is west of and adjacent to the Barrier Volcano at the southernmost portion of Lake Turkana.

Location

Loriu is bounded by Lake Turkana to the east, Kapedo to the south, the

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 t ...

to the west, and Kerio River delta to the north. The plateau is 64 kilometers running from north to south, approximately 8 kilometers wide, and is capped by

Tertiary Tertiary (from Latin, meaning 'third' or 'of the third degree/order..') may refer to: * Tertiary period, an obsolete geologic period spanning from 66 to 2.6 million years ago * Tertiary (chemistry), a term describing bonding patterns in organic ch ...

volcanic lava flows. The western margin of Loriu rises gradually while the eastern margin is defined by a

fault scarp A fault scarp is a small step-like offset of the ground surface in which one side of a fault has shifted vertically in relation to the other. The topographic expression of fault scarps results from the differential erosion of rocks of contrastin ...

more than 366 meters high in some locations. The maximum altitude of the plateau is 1,463 meters.

Animal and plant life

The Turkana basin was previously home to a great diversity and number of animal species, many of which became the basis for names of both places and people in the region. A number of wild animals no longer found in the wider Turkana Basin, including

oryx ''Oryx'' ( ) is a genus consisting of four large antelope species called oryxes. Their pelage is pale with contrasting dark markings in the face and on the legs, and their long horns are almost straight and annulated. The exception is the sci ...

greater kudu The greater kudu (''Tragelaphus strepsiceros'') is a large woodland antelope, found throughout East Africa, eastern and southern Africa. Despite occupying such widespread territory (animal), territory, they are sparsely populated in most areas d ...

and

ostrich Ostriches are large flightless birds. Two living species are recognised, the common ostrich, native to large parts of sub-Saharan Africa, and the Somali ostrich, native to the Horn of Africa. They are the heaviest and largest living birds, w ...

, were found in the Loriu Plateau during early expeditions by outsiders. Loriu includes a heterogeneous plant community with

acacia tree ''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 Austral ...

s, bush and sparse grassland. Portions of the plateau are too steep for vegetation.

Geology

The Precambrian basement rock biotite-gneisses that form the underlying structure of Loriu were exposed during the plateau's formation through up faulting and tilting of the basement rock. These layers are clearly visible and form a major part of the stratigraphy of the Mugor scarp on the eastern edge of the plateau. Because of the gradual slope of the western plateau, Loriu is most likely not a horst. Lavas capping Loriu are dated to the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

s, are grayish in color, trachytic in texture and composed of

olivine The mineral olivine () is a magnesium iron Silicate minerals, silicate with the chemical formula . It is a type of Nesosilicates, nesosilicate or orthosilicate. The primary component of the Earth's upper mantle (Earth), upper mantle, it is a com ...

. Other basalts contain olivine and

pyroxene The pyroxenes (commonly abbreviated Px) are a group of important rock-forming inosilicate minerals found in many igneous and metamorphic rocks. Pyroxenes have the general formula , where X represents ions of calcium (Ca), sodium (Na), iron ( ...

phenocryst image:montblanc granite phenocrysts.JPG, 300px, Granites often have large feldspar, feldspathic phenocrysts. This granite, from the Switzerland, Swiss side of the Mont Blanc massif, has large white phenocrysts of plagioclase (that have trapezoid sh ...

s. To the west are a few

mafic A mafic mineral or rock is a silicate mineral or igneous rock rich in magnesium and iron. Most mafic minerals are dark in color, and common rock-forming mafic minerals include olivine, pyroxene, amphibole, and biotite. Common mafic rocks include ...

porphyritic basalts and possibly older

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

basalts cut by dykes and faults. Olivine

nephelinite Nephelinite is a fine-grained or aphanitic igneous rock made up almost entirely of nepheline and clinopyroxene (variety augite). If olivine is present, the rock may be classified as an olivine nephelinite. Nephelinite is dark in color and may rese ...

has been collected near these basalts. The southern margin of Loriu is also bounded by a major volcanic group around the Lomi caldera.

References

{{Great Rift Valley, Kenya Great Rift Valley

Location

Animal and plant life

Geology

See also

References