Hello Everybody,I Greet You All With Love,Peace and Unity,Some Days or A Week Ago I Shared Some Information With You About Lake Kariba Thank You For Your Overwhelming Response Your Comments,I Would Like To Share With You Information About Lake Tanganika,Enjoy Reading,Stay Blessed.Lake Tanganyika is situated within the Albertine
Rift, the western branch of the East African Rift,
and is confined by the mountainous walls of the
valley. It is the largest rift lake in Africa and the
second largest lake by volume in the world.It is
the deepest lake in Africa and holds the greatest
volume of fresh water, accounting for 18% of the
world's available fresh water.It extends for
676 km (420 mi) in a general north-south
direction and averages 50 km (31 mi) in width.
The lake covers 32,900 km 2 (12,700 sq mi),
with a shoreline of 1,828 km (1,136 mi), a mean
depth of 570 m (1,870 ft) and a maximum depth
of 1,470 m (4,820 ft) (in the northern basin). It
holds an estimated 18,900 cubic kilometres
(4,500 cu mi). This is equivalent to about
16% of all fresh water on Earth. It has an
average surface temperature of 25 ?C (77 ?F)
and a pH averaging 8.4.The enormous depth and tropical location of the
lake can prevent 'turnover' of water masses,
which means that much of the lower depths of
the lake are so-called 'fossil water ' and are
anoxic (lacking oxygen).The catchment area of
the lake is 231,000 km 2 (89,000 sq mi). Two
main rivers flow into the lake, as well as
numerous smaller rivers and streams (whose
lengths are limited by the steep mountains
around the lake).There is one major outflow, the
Lukuga River , which empties into the Congo
River drainage.The major river flowing into the lake is the
Ruzizi River , formed about 10,000 years ago,
which enters the north of the lake from Lake
Kivu .The Malagarasi River , which is Tanzania's
second largest river, enters the east side of Lake
Tanganyika. The Malagarasi is older than Lake
Tanganyika and, before the lake was formed,
directly drained into the Congo River.The lake has a complex history of changing flow
patterns, due to its high altitude, great depth,
slow rate of refill and mountainous location in a
turbulently volcanic area that has undergone
climate changes.Apparently it has rarely in the
past had an outflow to the sea. It has been
described as 'practically endorheic' for this
reason. The lake's connection to the sea is
dependent on a high water level allowing water
to overflow out of the lake through the Lukunga
into the Congo.Due to the lake's tropical location, it suffers a
high rate of evaporation. Thus it depends on a
high inflow through the Ruzizi out of Lake Kivu
to keep the lake high enough to overflow. This
outflow is apparently not more than 12,000
years old, and resulted from lava flows blocking
and diverting the Kivu basin's previous outflow
into Lake Edward and then the Nile system, and
diverting it to Lake Tanganyika.Signs of ancient
shorelines indicate that at times Tanganyika
may have been up to 300 m lower than its
present surface level, with no outlet to the sea.
Even its current outlet is intermittent and may
not have been operating when first visited by
Western explorers in 1858.The lake may also have at times had different
inflows and outflows: inward flows from a
higher Lake Rukwa , access to Lake Malawi and
an exit route to the Nile have all been proposed
to have existed at some point in the lake's
history.IslandsThere are several islands in Lake Tanganyika.The most important of them areKavala Island (The Democratic Republic of the
Congo)Mamba-Kayenda Islands (The Democratic
Republic of the Congo)Milima Island (The Democratic Republic of the
Congo)Kibishie Island (The Democratic Republic of
the Congo)Mutonowe Island ( Zambia)
Kumbula Island ( Zambia)Thank You for Reading Once More.