The alkalinity of the lake can reach a pH of greater than 12. High levels of evaporation have left behind Natron (sodium carbonate dehydrate) and trona (sodium esquire carbonate dehydrate). Temperatures at the lake are frequently above 40 ☌ (104 ☏). The surrounding area receives irregular seasonal rainfall, mainly between December and May totaling 800 millimeters (31 in) per year. The lake is a maximum of 57 kilometers (35 mi) long and 22 kilometers (14 mi) wide. The lake is fed principally by the Southern Ewaso Ng’iro River, which rises in central Kenya, and by mineral-rich hot springs.It is quite shallow, less than three meters (9.8 ft) deep, and varies in width depending on its water level. Although the term is sometimes used in the narrow sense of the Kenyan Rift, the larger definition of the Gregory Rift is the set of faults and grabens extending southward from the Gulf of Aden through Ethiopia and Kenya into Northern Tanzania, passing over the local uplifts of the Ethiopian and Kenyan domes.Ancient fossils of early hominins, the ancestors of humans, have been found in the southern part of the Gregory Rift.

The rift is being caused by the separation of the Somali plate from the Nubian plate, driven by a thermal plume.

The Gregory Rift: is the eastern branch of the East African Rift fracture system. The lake is close to the Kenyan border and is in the Gregory Rift, which is the eastern branch of the East African Rift.The lake is within the Lake Natron Basin, a Ramsar Site wetland of international significance. Lake Natron is a salt and soda lake in the Arusha Region of northern Tanzania.

How deep is lake natron