Etosha Pan, Omuthiyagwiipundi, Oshikoto Region, Namibiai

Regional Level Types
Etosha Pan	Dry Lake
Omuthiyagwiipundi	Constituency
Oshikoto Region	Region
Namibia	Country

A large depression (pan) that predominantly occupies the Etosha National Park. The pan covers an area of approximately 4,760km².

The Etosha pan is a large endorheic salt pan, forming part of the Kalahari Basin in the north of Namibia. It is a hollow in the ground in which water may collect or in which a deposit of salt remains after the water has evaporated. The 120-kilometre-long (75-mile-long) dry lakebed and its surroundings are protected as Etosha National Park, Namibia's second-largest wildlife park, covering 22,270 km2. The pan is mostly dry but after heavy rain, it will acquire a thin layer of water, which is heavily salted by the mineral deposits on the surface.

Etosha, meaning 'Great White Place' is made of a large mineral pan. The area exhibits a characteristic white and greenish surface, which spreads over 4,800 km². The pan is believed to have developed through tectonic plate activity over about ten million years. Around 16,000 years ago, when ice sheets were melting across the landmasses of the Northern Hemisphere, a wet climate phase in southern Africa filled Etosha Lake. Today however the Etosha Pan is mostly dry clay mud split into hexagonal shapes as it dries and cracks, and is seldom seen with even a thin sheet of water covering it.

It is assumed that the Kunene River fed the lake at that time, but tectonic plate movements over time caused a change in river direction, resulting in the lake running dry and leaving a salt pan. Now the Ekuma River, the Oshigambo River and the Omurambo Ovambo River are the sole seasonal source of water for the lake. Typically, little river water or sediment reaches the dry lake because water seeps into the riverbed along its 250-kilometre (160 mi) course, reducing discharge along the way.

Buch and Rose,(1996) identified four mineral associations within the vertical succession of the profiles in the Etosha Pan, which are the expression of the present seasonal saline-alkaline to calciferous, saline-alkaline environment:
1. analcime/K-feldspar and mica association;
2. analcime/K-feldspar and sepiolite (loughlinite) association;
3. smectite (saponite/stevensite) association; and
4. calcite and dolomite association.

Fossils

This region is too big or complex to display the fossil list, try looking at smaller subregions.

Other Databases

Wikipedia:	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etosha_pan
Wikidata ID:	Q280231
GeoNames ID:	3357576

References