Mount Silali is a dormant
volcano in the
Gregory Rift Valley, near
Kapedo
Kapedo is a trading center in Turkana East sub-county of Turkana County, in Kenya's former Rift Valley Province. It is a 5-hour drive from Nakuru town.
Administratively, it is headed by a chief (National Government), to be assisted by a village a ...
,
Kenya. Silali is south of the
Suguta Valley
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 .
...
, which reaches northward to
Lake Turkana
Lake Turkana (), formerly known as Lake Rudolf, is a 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. B ...
, and is about north of
Lake Baringo.
Geology
Mount Silali is part of a group of volcanoes, the others being
Paka
Paka may refer to:
Places Europe
* Paka (river), a river in northern Slovenia
* Paka, Mislinja, a settlement in the Municipality of Mislinja, Slovenia
* Paka pri Predgradu, a settlement in the Municipality of Kočevje, Slovenia
* Paka pri Velenj ...
and
Korosi, in the Loyamoruk Plains of the eastern Nginyang Division of
Baringo County.
Silali is a recent volcano that became active from 400,000 to 220,000 years ago, and was still active 7,000 years ago. It is the largest
caldera
A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...
volcano in the Gregory Rift Valley. Its pre-caldera development began with mainly
peralkaline trachyte lavas and
pyroclasts, succeeded by mildly alkaline to transitional
basalts. The basalts of the mountain are similar in composition to
oceanic island basalts, but have a range of
isotopes indicating a variety of origins.
The Kenya rift is oriented north-south, and in the past the minimum horizontal tectonic stress direction was east-west, the direction of extension. The alignment of rows of recently formed small
vents
Vent or vents may refer to:
Science and technology Biology
*Vent, the cloaca region of an animal
* Vent DNA polymerase, a thermostable DNA polymerase
Geology
* Hydrothermal vent, a fissure in a planet's surface from which geothermally heated wa ...
,
cones,
domes and collapse pits in the Silali region indicates that the minimum horizontal stress direction has changed to NW-SE within the last half million years.
Environment
Mean annual temperature in the Loyamoruk Plains is , rising to in the hot season. Rainfall averages , with wide variations.
The thorn-bush savannah plain has no permanent source of water, with the Nginyang River flowing only after rains.
There are some highland pastures on Mount Silali with perennial grasses.
From oral accounts, the environment has become significantly drier in the last few decades, and with less grass and fewer types of grass.
Energy potential
The mountain is potentially a source of
geothermal energy
Geothermal energy is the thermal energy in the Earth's crust which originates from the formation of the planet and from radioactive decay of materials in currently uncertain but possibly roughly equal proportions. The high temperature and pres ...
. There are
hot springs at
Kapedo
Kapedo is a trading center in Turkana East sub-county of Turkana County, in Kenya's former Rift Valley Province. It is a 5-hour drive from Nakuru town.
Administratively, it is headed by a chief (National Government), to be assisted by a village a ...
to the west with temperatures of to . The eastern part has many
fumaroles and hot and altered grounds with temperatures that range from to .
In September 2011 the Geothermal Development Company (GDC) of Kenya said that 19 companies had submitted bids to develop
geothermal power
Geothermal power is electrical power generated from geothermal energy. Technologies in use include dry steam power stations, flash steam power stations and binary cycle power stations. Geothermal electricity generation is currently used in 2 ...
plants at
Lake Bogoria and at Silali. GDC intended to choose eight companies, each to build one 100 MW power plant. They expected the plants to start coming on line in 2017.
References
Sources
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Silali
Volcanoes of Kenya
Dormant volcanoes
Baringo County