Soda Lakes

Soda Lakes. Table 2 Chemical composition of Lake Van, the largest contemporary soda lake, compared to Nemrut Crater Lake, a “soda lake in the making” and to modern seawater

Lake/Depth	pH	PCO₂ ppmv	Alkal. meq/l	Cl meq/l	SO₄ meq/l	Na meq/l	Mg meq/l	Ca meq/l	Cond µS/cm	SI_Cc	SI_Ara	SI_Dol
Seawater at surface	8.24	363	2.33	546	56.6	468	106.2	20.6	ca. 48,000	0.59	0.44	1.96
Van 3 m	9.74	309	151.2	160	48.9	338	8.870	0.210	26,000	1.14	0.99	4.09
Van 440 m	9.88	257	155.6	166	50.9	348	9.06	0.174	26,700	1.06	0.91	3.81
Nemrut 10 m	8.27	1,240	4.61	0.43	0.22	3.67	0.52	0.96	456	0.37	0.22	0.43
Nemrut 150 m	6.89	28,600	4.77	0.45	0.25	3.80	0.53	0.97	469	−1.11	−1.27	−2.59
Same degassed	8.73	380	4.77	0.45	0.25	3.80	0.53	0.97	−	1.30	1.15	2.25

Source: From Kempe and Kazmierczak (2003); data see Reimer (1995); (Reimer et al., 2009)