Warping In East Africa

Warping is a gentle deformation of the crust over a considerable area for a relatively long period of time.

When the earth is affected by compression forces , as a result of sinking of the convective currents , it is deformed down wards creating a down warp finally known as down warping.when the earth’s crust is uplifted, an up warp is created through the process known as up warping.

Warping is also indirectly related to faulting.for the case of East Africa , the formation of the rift valley resulted in to up warping of the rift valley shoulders. The Eastern shoulder of the Ugandan Rift valley was slowly but steadily tilted upwards. Similarly, rifting occurred in Kenya , the western shoulder of the rift valley was slowly but steadily upwarped.

The land in between the Ugandan and Kenyan rift valleys was gently deformed down wards resulting in the formation of a huge downwarped structure.The down warped structure became the down warped basin.

During and after the down warping process, the rivers that were formerly flowing to the west were gradually reversed pouring thier waters into the down warped basins.similary the rivers flowing from central Kenya experienced renewed energy and thus became rejuvenated.The reversed and rejuvenated rivers carried water into the down warped basins which gradually filled up to form lakes.

Lakes Victoria and Kyoga were formed in that way other lakes formed due to down warping include lake Kijanebalola, Mburo and Nakivali.

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Revision question:

a) Account for the formation of Lake Victoria and Kyoga.

b) Examine the economic importances of lakes to man.