Lake Besaka, as a groundwater-fed lake which appears to have overflowed eastwards into the Awash during the late Pleistocene and perhaps again during the earliest Holocene, is not a sensitive indicator of climatic change. Only two major
transgressions are so far evident in the late Quaternary depositional record of the lake, one dated to about 11,000-12,000 BP, the other perhaps 10,000 years older. Tectonic and volcanic factors have undoubtedly modulated the response of Lake Besaka to climatic