Abstract
The large lakes of the East African Rift Valley provide a magnificent array of sedimentary basins that are actively recording the modern climate dynamics of tropical East Africa. The basins are perhaps 10 million or more years old (Cohen et al. 1993), and their deepest reaches have archived continuous records of past climate change that are unparalleled anywhere else in the tropics in terms of longevity coupled with resolution (Johnson 1993). These lakes are highly sensitive to climate variability, and their sediments carry rich signals of past environmental dynamics, inscribed in the assemblages of microfossils, the abundance and isotopic composition of endogenic minerals, bulk sediment texture and structure, and organic geochemistry.
Original language | English (US) |
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Title of host publication | Past Climate Variability through Europe and Africa |
Editors | Richard W. Battarbee, Françoise Gasse, Catherine E. Stickley |
Place of Publication | Dordrecht |
Publisher | Springer Netherlands |
Pages | 93-116 |
Number of pages | 24 |
ISBN (Print) | 978-1-4020-2121-3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2004 |