Climate change and lake levels: Lake turkana study insights
Climate change effects can alter the lake's water level. A significant decrease in the lake's water levels could result in the lightening of the Earth's crust, leading to more earthquakes, according to research led by Dr James Muirhead of the University of Auckland, with collaborators at Syracuse University in the US.
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The location and subject of the study is North Kenya's Lake Turkana, the world's biggest permanent desert lake, and where the African continent is slowly splitting apart - as the eastern and western sides move away from each other, making it an ideal setting to explore how changes to the Earth's surface and climate affect deep-earth processes.
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According to the study, over the last 6000 years, water levels in Lake Turkana have dropped by 100 to 150 meters, reducing surface pressure on Earth's crust and allowing plates to move more easily.
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He explains that any change in the Earth's surface load, and not just water, but activities like the damming of rivers, or releasing dam water, and the retreat of glacial ice, with the latter causing earthquakes in parts of Europe and North America. The reason is that when the weight is removed from the Earth's surface on a fast enough timescale, the crust will begin to relax as the pressure is reduced.
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