Etosha pan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The upper view (March 2006) shows the point where the Ekuma River flows into the salt lake. In this image, there was enough surface flow to reach the Etosha pan, but too little water reached the mouth of the river to flow beyond the inlet bay. The lower regional image (June 2005) shows the same inlet—but dry—on the north shore of Etosha pan.

The Etosha pan is a large endorheic salt pan, forming part of the Kalahari Basin in the north of Namibia. The 120-kilometre-long (75-mile-long) dry lakebed and its surroundings are protected as Etosha National Park, one of Namibia's largest wildlife parks. Herds of elephants occupy the dense mopane woodland on the south side of the lake. Mopane trees are common throughout south-central Africa, and host the mopane worm, which is the larval form of the moth Gonimbrasia belina and an important source of protein for rural communities. It was first explored by the Europeans Charles John Andersson and Francis Galton in 1851. American commercial traveller McKeirnan visited the area in 1876.

The Etosha pan

The area exhibits a characteristic white and greenish surface, which spreads over hundreds of kilometres. The pan developed through tectonic plate activity over 10 million years. About 16,000 years ago, when ice sheets were melting across the Northern Hemisphere land masses, a wet climate phase in southern Africa filled Etosha Lake. Today, Etosha Pan is seldom seen with even a thin sheet of water covering the salt pan. It is assumed that today's Kunene River fed the lake at that time but over time plate movements caused a change in river direction causing the lake to run dry and leave a salt pan. Now the Ekuma River is the sole source of water. Typically, little river water or sediment reaches the dry lake because water seeps into the riverbed along its 250-kilometre (55-mile) course, reducing discharge along the way. The year-round meager vegetation lends gives the Etosha its characteristic green colouring. In particularly rainy years the Etosha pan becomes a lake approximately 10 cm in depth and becomes a breeding ground for flamingos, which arrive in their thousands.

The Etosha area was used as a backdrop during the filming of 2001: A Space Odyssey.