The Uganda Atlas

Credit...................... NEMA 2007

Aerial view of Kabale-Iyamuriro wetland

Lake Bunyonyi The lake was formed due to a combination of intense rifting and back tilting of the landscape by earth movements that occurred in this area during the Tertiary times, in association with formation of the Western Rift valley in East Africa; and later the volcanic lava damming of rivers flowing on the raised and tilted landscape. As a result, Lake Bunyonyi occupies one of the deepest and long winding narrow valleys, characteristic of this Kigezi

region and a reminiscent of the intense Tertiary rifting in this part of the country. The entire lake is encircled by towering ridges and hills, with very steep slopes that abruptly drop to the very narrow lake shores. Water from rivers filled a drowned deep and moderately wide streak valley which was then dammed by lava to form one of the deepest lakes in Africa. The lake covers an area of 46 km 2 and has an average depth of 39m (Langlands 1974).

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