Turkana Basin Institute

Turkana Basin Institute

Nearly four decades of research have resulted in a good understanding of the Lake Turkana Basin's geological history and the distribution and age of the extensive fossil exposures. Fossil deposits in the Turkana Basin range from the Cretaceous at 165 million years through to excellent exposures as recent as 10000 years. Fieldwork has traditionally been conducted during short field seasons run by multidisciplinary investigators. Due to the remote location of the Turkana Basin, field work is often costly and logistics are complex.

The Turkana Basin Institute has established two field stations, on the west and east sides of the Lake. The first of these at Ileret is now fully functional. It is hoped that with the facilities now available including accommodation, storage, laboratories, equipment and vehicle hire, that this will make it considerably easier for investigators to carry out their field work. Thus the discoveries and publications accruing from field research should be dramatically increased.A major component of the Institute will be the Web-based availability of information, digitized archives of collections, field dispatches and other useful resources.