Mahale Mountains National Park | Summary of Resource Base

2. LAKE TANGANYIKA
LENGTH (NORTH-SOUTH) 673km
AVERAGE WIDTH 50km
VOLUME 18,900km 3
MAXIMUM DEPTH 1,470m
AVERAGE SURFACE TEMP. 25 o C
Ruzizi River (N end, from Lake Kivu), Malagarasi
MAJOR INFLOWS
River (Tanzania’s 2 nd largest river), Rungwe River (S
end, Tanzania) & Kalambo River (S end, Zambia)
MAJOR OUTFLOWS Lukugu River (empties into Congo River system)
• Longest & second deepest lake in the world;
• Second largest lake in the world by volume;
• Spans the borders of four nations - Burundi, Zambia, Tanzania and the DRC;
• Contains 17% of the Earth’s fresh water;
• Part of the western Rift Valley, or Albertine Rift, which extends from Lake Albert
in the north to Lake Malawi in the south.
The geology of the Mahale area is an extension of that developed to the south on the
Ufipa Plateau (McConnell, 1950). The MMNP peninsular comprises granulitic augengneisses
except for its southern shore, which comprises a narrow belt of mbuga
clays, silts and gravels, and culminates in the granite Sibwesa point.
A sharp fault line runs parallel to the Mahale Mountains’ eastern edge, clearly
separating the granite of the mountain range from the metamorphic bed rock lying
to the east (McConnell, 1950).
The peninsular on which the Mahale Mountains rest represents a bend in Lake
Tanganyika’s north-south axis and a transition zone between two major fault
systems. The mountains form the eastern extreme of what is known as the Kalemi-
Mahale Shoal, which divides the lake into a northern and southern basin, a feature
born out by the differences between cichlids that have evolved in either basin.
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