Ol Esayeiti
The Ol Esayeiti volcano is located southwest of the Ngong Hills and extends from the southwest corner of the Nairobi map sheet (No. 085-00-062) (Saggerson, 1991) into the Kajiado area to the south (No. 085-00-071) (Matheson, 1966).
Kenya probably contains a greater volume of alkaline igneous rocks than any country in the world. From the northern boundary with Ethiopia to the Tanzanian border Kenya is traversed by the East African Rift along the floor and shoulders of which is a continuous cover of volcanic rocks, about half of which are basalts (Williams, 1972a) the rest comprising a broad spectrum of alkaline rocks including nephelinites, phonolites, peralkaline trachytes and rhyolites. The unbroken nature of these presents the difficulty of subdividing them into discrete localities, which is the style adopted for these volumes. There are many individual volcanoes, which are given their own accounts, but there are also huge areas of ‘plateau’ lavas and pyroclastic rocks that are not so readily subdivided. The system adopted has been to describe the rocks in terms of ‘degree’ and ‘quarter degree’ squares, generally corresponding to the areas covered in the Reports of the Geological Survey of Kenya. These areas are outlined on Fig. ?? Although it might be preferable to describe the geology within a full degree square, only in the northern half of the rift zone have recent reports been so organised. Most of the earlier reports, and all those for the southern half of the rift, consist of descriptions of quarter degree squares and it generally proved difficult to write a coherent account combining adjacent reports, because of inconsistent correlation between the sheets. In the southern half of the rift zone, therefore, many accounts are based on quarter degree squares only.
A full interpretation of the general geology, petrology, geochemistry, structure and geochronology of the volcanism along the Kenya rift is not within the remit of this chapter, but a number of review papers are available. Several comprehensive accounts have been published by Williams (1972a, 1978a and 1978b) that include consideration of the continuation of the volcanic rocks southwards into Tanzania, their volumes and temporal and spatial variations of petrography and chemistry. A description of the tectonic and magmatic evolution of the southern part of the rift zone is given by Baker et al. (1978), while Baker (1987) considers the petrology of the volcanic rocks exploring the variation of rock types and chemistry with time. A useful review of the stratigraphy, tectonic history, petrography and petrochemistry of the volcanism of southwest Kenya is that of Crossley and Knight (1981). The sequence and geochronology of the volcanic rocks are covered in considerable detail in Baker et al. (1971). Further dates are given in many subsequent papers including that by Jones and Lippard (1979). A general account of the major late Quaternary volcanoes within the rift will be found in Williams et al. (1984). For a broad overview of the structural and volcanic evolution of the Gregory Rift Valley see King (1978). Two special issues of Tectonophysics on the themes “Crustal and upper mantle structure of the Kenya Rift” (1994, vol. 236) and “Structure and dynamic processes in the lithosphere of the Afro-Arabian Rift System” (1997, vol. 278) contain many reviews of the structural and magmatic evolution of the rift system.
The alkaline rocks and carbonatites around Homa Bay on the Nyanza (Kavirondo) Gulf of Lake Victoria in western Kenya are fully and comprehensively described in the book by Le Bas (1977).
The Ol Esayeiti volcano is located southwest of the Ngong Hills and extends from the southwest corner of the Nairobi map sheet (No. 085-00-062) (Saggerson, 1991) into the Kajiado area to the south (No. 085-00-071) (Matheson, 1966).
The western half of this quarter degree sheet area consists of Tertiary lavas, pyroclastic rocks and sediments and the eastern half of basement gneisses and schists (Fairburn, 1963).
The Yatta Plateau is an extraordinary feature consisting of a phonolite lava flow that extends for some 300 km, but is generally only several kilometres wide, the lava capping a ridge which it nowhere appears to overflow.
For purposes of the present description the Magadi area is taken to include the Magadi area as described by Baker (1958), the area south of Magadi, extending to the border with Tanzania (Baker, 1963b), and the easternmost part of the Loita Hills area (Saggerson, 1966).
Olorgesailie is the highest mountain in the Magadi section of the East African rift (No. 085-00-067) the whole volcano covering about 15x12 km. Inliers of lava similar to those of Olorgesailie occur on Shanamu to the west (Baker, 1958).
The Lenderut Hills represent the remnants of a central volcano that predates the surrounding plateau trachytes (Baker, 1963b).
Shombole is a deeply dissected volcano situated on the floor of the Gregory Rift on the Kenya-Tanzania border (Baker, 1963). It is 10 km in diameter with a relief of about 1000 m.
Volcanic rocks cover about 70% of the Kajiado area (Matheson, 1966) those in the west lying within the Gregory Rift valley while those that occupy the northern half of the remaining area form plateaux and plains that are continuous with those around Nairobi (No. 085-00-062).
The Chyulu Hills lie to the northeast of Kilimanjaro (Fig. 90) and are a northwest-southeast trending range, much of which is covered by Pleistocene to Recent lava flows up to 16 m thick. Only the northwestern part of the hills have been mapped in detail (Searle, 1954; Saggerson, 1963).
The southern half of the Amboseli area, which lies adjacent to the border with Tanzania, is covered extensively by lavas of the Kilimanjaro volcano, (see Tanzania No. 163-00-022).