Lake Shala (also spelled Shalla) is an
alkaline lake located in the
Ethiopian Rift Valley, in the
Abijatta-Shalla National Park.
Overview
The
lake
A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...
is 28 kilometers long and 12 wide,
[''Statistical Abstract of Ethiopia for 1967/68''] with a surface area of 329 square kilometers.
[Baxter, R. M. "Lake Morphology and Chemistry", in Taylor, W.D. and Tudorancea, C., eds. ''Ethiopian Rift Valley Lakes'' (Leiden: Backhuys Publishers, 2002)] It has a maximum depth of 266 meters and is at an elevation of 1,558 meters.
As such, it is the deepest of
Ethiopia's Rift Valley lakes.
Known for the
sulphur
Sulfur (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundance of the chemical ...
springs on the
lake bed, its
island
An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...
s are inhabited by
great white pelican
The great white pelican (''Pelecanus onocrotalus'') also known as the eastern white pelican, rosy pelican or simply white pelican is a bird in the pelican family. It breeds from southeastern Europe through Asia and Africa, in swamps and shallow ...
s, one being known as
Pelican Island.
Lake Shala is surrounded by hot springs filled with boiling water, and the earth surrounding the lake is filled with cracks due to erosion and earthquakes. Due to steam rising from the boiling water in the springs, the atmosphere around the lake is relatively foggy. Various species of
flamingo
Flamingos or flamingoes () are a type of wading bird in the family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas (including the Caribbe ...
es and birds that frequent the lake are found at its southern end.
See also
*
O'a Caldera
*
Rift Valley lakes
The Rift Valley lakes are a series of lakes in the East African Rift valley that runs through eastern Africa from Ethiopia in the north to Malawi in the south, and includes the African Great Lakes in the south. These include some of the world's ...
References
Shala
Shala (Šala) was a Mesopotamian goddess of weather and grain and the wife of the weather god Adad. It is assumed that she originated in northern Mesopotamia and that her name might have Hurrian origin. She was worshiped especially in Karka ...
Shala
Shala (Šala) was a Mesopotamian goddess of weather and grain and the wife of the weather god Adad. It is assumed that she originated in northern Mesopotamia and that her name might have Hurrian origin. She was worshiped especially in Karka ...
Ethiopian Highlands
Geography of Oromia
{{Oromia-geo-stub