Lake Magadi is the southernmost lake in the Kenya Rift Valley, lying in a catchment of faulted volcanic rocks, north east of Lake Eyasi. During the dry season, it is 80% covered by soda and is well known for its wading birds, including flamingos.
Lake Magadi is a saline, alkaline lake, approximately 100 square kilometers in size, that lies in a graben. The lake is an example of a "saline pan". The lake water, which is a dense sodium carbonate brine, precipitates vast quantities of the mineral trona (sodium sesquicarbonate). In places, the salt is up to 40 m thick. The lake is recharged mainly by saline hot springs (temperatures up to 86C) that discharge into alkaline "lagoons" around the lake margins, there being little surface runoff in this arid region. Most hot springs lie along the northwestern and southern shorelines of the lake. During the rainy season a thin (
