Elements Magazine Past Issues

Alkaline lakes are incredibly dynamic, unique, and fascinating biogeochemical environments. This thematic issue will leverage the authors’ multidisciplinary insights to portray alkaline lakes’ biogeochemical, mineralogical, and geological importance for both science and society. The articles will individually explore the unique conditions leading to the formation of alkaline lakes, the distinctively productive microbial ecosystems that inhabit them, their distinguishing chemistry and mineralogy, their role as societally important economic resources, and their potential to have originated life on Earth as well as Mars. This approachable overview of the geochemical, biological, and societal aspects of alkaline lakes will establish their vital importance to the broad readership of Elements and stimulate continued explorations of these mesmerizing geological systems.

Spanning from the horn of Africa down to Lake Malawi, the East Africa Rift preserves a plethora of paleoanthropological sites (e.g., Olduvai Gorge, Turkana, Awash) that document our evolutionary journey spanning the last seven million years of Earth’s history. A common feature of these sites is that they are associated with volcanic-sedimentary basins intimately related to the development of the rift. Radiometric and paleomagnetic geochronology helps establish age relations between different hominin species. Geochemical studies of primary tuffs help correlate between sites and identify specific volcanic sources. Authigenic minerals formed in rift lakes can help reconstruct past climates and environments. Recent excavations at Laetoli show that this valuable site is slowly disappearing owing to diagenetic processes, and preservation of the footprints is essential and urgently needed.