This article is about soda lakes in general. For lakes named Soda, see Soda Lake (disambiguation).
Lake Shala, in the East African Rift Valley
A soda lake or alkaline lake is a lake on the strongly alkaline side of neutrality, typically with a pH value between 9 and 12. They are characterized by high concentrations of carbonate salts, typically sodium carbonate (and related salt complexes), giving rise to their alkalinity. In addition, many soda lakes also contain high concentrations of sodium chloride and other dissolved salts, making them saline or hypersaline lakes as well. High pH and salinity often coincide, because of how soda lakes develop.[a] The resulting hypersaline and highly alkalic soda lakes are considered some of the most extreme aquatic environments on Earth.[1]
In spite of their apparent inhospitability, soda lakes are often highly productive ecosystems, compared to their (pH-neutral) freshwater counterparts. Gross primary production (photosynthesis) rates above 10 g C m−2 day−1 (grams of carbon per square meter per day), over 16 times the global average for lakes and streams (0.6 g C m−2 day−1), have been measured.[2] This makes them the most productive aquatic environments on Earth. An important reason for the high productivity is the virtually unlimited availability of dissolved carbon dioxide.
Soda lakes occur naturally throughout the world (see Table below), typically in arid and semi-arid areas and in connection to tectonic rifts like the East African Rift Valley. The pH of most freshwater lakes is on the alkaline side of neutrality and many exhibit similar water chemistries to soda lakes, only less extreme.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
^Grant, W. D. (2006). "Alkaline Environments and Biodiversity". In Gerday, Charles; Glansdorff, Nicolas (eds.). Extremophiles. Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems Vol. 1. Oxford: Eolss Publishers Co.; UNESCO. ISBN 978-1-84826-993-4. OCLC 377806109.
^Melack JM, Kilham P (1974). "Photosynthetic rates of phytoplankton in East African alkaline, saline lakes" (PDF). Limnol. Oceanogr. 19 (5): 743–755. Bibcode:1974LimOc..19..743M. doi:10.4319/lo.1974.19.5.0743. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
A sodalake or alkaline lake is a lake on the strongly alkaline side of neutrality, typically with a pH value between 9 and 12. They are characterized...
Look up soda, sodas, or Soda in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Soda or SODA may refer to: Some chemical compounds containing sodium Sodium carbonate...
larger lake, called SodaLake or Big SodaLake, is somewhat elongated, stretching 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) in length. The smaller one, Little SodaLake, is...
Lonar Lake, also known as Lonar crater, is a notified National Geo-heritage Monument, saline, sodalake, located at Lonar, 79 km from Buldhana city in...
"Utah field guide: Dirty soda", Salt Lake Petersen, Victoria (December 6, 2021), "In the Mountain West, the 'Dirty' Soda Rush Is On", The New York Times...
has a high content of carbonate is sometimes termed a sodalake.[citation needed] One saline lake classification differentiates between: subsaline: 0.5–3‰...
Mono Lake (/ˈmoʊnoʊ/ MOH-noh) is a saline sodalake in Mono County, California, formed at least 760,000 years ago as a terminal lake in an endorheic basin...
Alkali Lake may refer to: A sodalake or "alkaline lake" (a lake with high alkalinity) Alkali Lake, British Columbia Alkali Lake Indian Band, First Nations...
from their villages on the Colorado River to SodaLake, then paralleled the river from its mouth on the lake to the Cajon Pass. Native Americans used this...
sodalake, receiving water from many small streams that descend from the surrounding mountains. It is one of the world's few endorheic lakes (a lake having...
Lake Mojave is an ancient former lake fed by the Mojave River that, through the Holocene, occupied the Silver Lake and SodaLake basins in the Mojave Desert...
carbonate decahydrate (Na2CO3·10H2O, a kind of soda ash) and around 17% sodium bicarbonate (also called baking soda, NaHCO3) along with small quantities of sodium...
endorheic basin lakes are called soda or alkaline lakes when the water inflows contain high concentrations of Na2CO3. The pH of the sodalake water is generally...
French name for the site. This crust is sometimes known as the Tibesti SodaLake. The crusts are formed when mineral-rich steam is emitted from small vents...
Lake Elmenteita is a sodalake, in the Great Rift Valley, about 120 km northwest of Nairobi, Kenya. Elmenteita is derived from the Maasai word muteita...
Lake, north northwest of Albany, New York Big SodaLake, Nevada Brownie Lake in Minneapolis, Minnesota Canyon Lake near Big Bay, Michigan Chapel Lake...
Phulhar Lake East Calcutta Wetlands Jore Pokhri Mirik Lake Rabindra Sarobar Rasikbil Santragachhi Lake Senchal Lake List of lakesSodalake Water resources...
Sodium carbonate (also known as washing soda, soda ash and soda crystals) is the inorganic compound with the formula Na2CO3 and its various hydrates....
poisoning, while its primary African breeding area in Lake Natron is currently under threat by a proposed soda ash plant by Tata Chemicals. The only breeding...
elevation of the plain is about 2,200 feet (670.6 m). SodaLake, a 3,000-acre (12 km2) alkaline lake, is in the center of the plain with the popular Painted...
Soap Lake is a meromictic sodalake in the town of Soap Lake, Washington formed by the Missoula Floods at the foot of the Grand Coulee. The lake gets...
Marl Spring and Soda Spring on the west side of SodaLake. From there the trail led to the mouth of the Mojave River southwest of SodaLake. It then followed...
trona from Lake Magadi, in the Rift Valley. Lake Magadi has one of the purest surface deposits of trona. The trona is converted by Magadi to soda ash, at...
Global Information