Lake Magadi is the farthest lake on the south of Kenya’s Rift Valley lakes. It is some 30 km further south of Olorgesailie and a vision in pink. At an altitude of 580 m, this is the second-lowest of the Rift Valley lakes which is 32 km long and 3 km wide. It is only 110 km from Nairobi but the climate is semi-desert with temperatures around 38°C, very different from that of the capital.
It is the most mineral-rich of the soda lakes in Kenya and it is almost entirely covered by a thick encrustation of soda that supports many bird species and gives the landscape a weird lunar appearance. The highly alkaline water, with its accumulated minerals and salts, makes the surrounding soils near the lakes alkaline. This has the knock-on effect of turning ivory and bones into fossils. The high rate of evaporation is the only way by which water escapes from the lake.
Several hot springs, mostly at the southern end of the lake, bring to the surface a continual supply of Magadi (soda), which evaporates forming a crust of sodium carbonate. These sweltering hot plains prevent any animals reaching the alkaline lake at its centre. For this reason, thousands of flamingoes descend on the lake each year to nest on elevated mud mounds at the lake’s edge safe from any potential predators. Freshwater springs at the Lake’s shore attract a host of other birds. There is an abundance of birdlife – in particular lesser flamingos, ibis and African spoonbills.
A soda ash factory has been built on the lakeshore, and the town of Magadi has grown up around it. At Tata Chemicals Magadi’s manufacturing facility, soda ash is obtained by washing and calcining trona, a naturally occurring form of sodium sesquicarbonate, extracted from Lake Magadi in Kenya. Also common salt (sodium chloride or NaCl) is extracted from the lake waters by solar evaporation.