page_title: Soda lake
section_title: List of soda lakes
hierarchical_section_title: Soda lake / List of soda lakes
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Blick auf den Turkana-See. English: View at the Lake Turkana
context_page_description: 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, 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. The resulting hypersaline and highly alkalic soda lakes are considered some of the most extreme aquatic environments on Earth.
  In spite of their apparent inhospitability, soda lakes are often highly productive ecosystems, compared to their freshwater counterparts. Gross primary production rates above 10 g C m⁻² day⁻¹, over 16 times the global average for lakes and streams, have been measured. 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.
context_section_description: The following table lists some examples of soda lakes by region, listing country, pH and salinity. NA indicates 'data not available':
caption: Lake Turkana
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "1024", "Image ImageLength": "768", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 15.0 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2019:07:26 21:55:06", "Image ExifOffset": "244", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "394", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5120", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1024", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "768"}