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Lake Bosumtwi

Crater lake in Ghana

Field	Value
name	Lake Bosumtwi
image	An Explosive Beginning for Lake Bosumtwi (154739 - 151229 lrg).jpg
caption	Satellite image of Lake Bosumtwi
location	Ashanti
coords
type	Ancient lake, Impact crater lake
1.07 million years old
inflow	rainfall
outflow	none
catchment	400 km2
basin_countries	Ghana
length	8.6 km
width	8.1 km
area	49 km2
depth	45 m
max-depth	81 m
elevation	150 m
pushpin_map	Ghana#Africa
pushpin_map_alt	Location of Lake Bosumtwi in Ghana.
reference

1.07 million years old | max-depth = 81 m

Lake Bosomtwe, also spelled Bosumtwi, is the only natural lake in Ghana. It is situated within an ancient impact crater that is about 10.5 km in diameter. It is about 30 km south-east of Kumasi, the capital of Ashanti, and is a popular recreational area. There are about 30 villages near the crater lake of Lake Bosomtwe, with a combined population of about 70,000. The most popular amongst the villages where tourists usually settle is Abono.

The Ashanti consider Bosomtwe a sacred lake. According to traditional belief, the souls of the dead come here to bid farewell to the goddess Asase Ya. Because of this, it is considered permissible to fish in the lake only from wooden planks. Among the fish species in the lake is the endemic cichlid Hemichromis frempongi, and the near-endemic cichlids Tilapia busumana and T. discolor.

Oblique view with 3x vertical exaggeration

Impact crater

750 m (original, incl. sediments) The Lake Bosomtwe impact crater is 10.5 km in diameter, slightly larger than the present lake which is approximately 8 km across, and is estimated to be 1.07 million years old (Pleistocene period).{{cite journal

The depth of crater is approximately 380 m, but, if counted together with the depth of lake sediments - 750 m.

The crater has been partly eroded, and is situated in dense rainforest, making it difficult to study and confirm its origin by meteorite impact. Shock features such as shatter cones are largely overgrown by vegetation or covered by the lake. However, drilling of the crater's central uplift beneath the lake floor has recently provided an abundance of shocked materials for scientific study. Tektites, believed to be from this impact, are found in the neighbouring country of Ivory Coast, and related microtektites have been found in deep sea sediments west of the African continent.

A work based on a statistical study of past numerical orbital simulations of the impact event{{cite journal

Climate history

Before the asteroid impact, the area was a lush rainforest filled with animals. Following the impact, the resulting crater filled with water forming Lake Bosomtwe.

Periods of heavy rainfall filled the crater with water, causing the lake level to rise above the lowest points of the rim. Such periods are evidenced from fossils of fish found on hilltops. Water even flowed from the basin through an overflow channel. However, there were also times when the water level was so low that the rainforest entered the basin rendering the lake only a small pond. Such a period, according to legend and now proved by paleoclimate records, lasted until about 300 years ago.{{cite journal |url=https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.1166352?rss=1 |title=Atlantic Forcing of Persistent Drought in West Africa |issue=5925 |pages=377–380 |doi=10.1126/science.1166352

References

"Bosumtwi".
"Visit Ghana - Lake Bosomtwe".
(2016-03-27). "Lake Bosomtwi".
Adom, Dickson. (2018-01-01). "The human impact and the aquatic biodiversity of lake Bosomtwe: rennaisance (sic) of the cultural traditions of Abono (Ghana)?". Transylvanian Review of Systematical and Ecological Research.
"Why Ghana’s Lake Bosomtwe Should Be on Your Travel Bucket List".
{{FishBase. (2012)
{{FishBase. (2012)
{{FishBase. (2012)
(2016-04-01). "WIP: A Web-based program for indexing planar features in quartz grains and its usage". [[Meteoritics & Planetary Science]].
{{cite Earth Impact DB
(2013-02-09). "Lake Bosumtwi".
Shanahan et al. 2009

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

ancient-lakes ashanti-region impact-crater-lakes lakes-of-ghana impact-craters-of-ghana pleistocene-impact-craters sacred-lakes tourist-attractions-in-ghana

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