earth science

Mount Suswa

Mount Suswa is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mount Suswa rather than just read about it. In short: Mount Suswa is a shield volcano in the Great Rift Valley, Kenya. It is located between Narok and Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.

Key takeaways

Mount Suswa belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mount Suswa to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mount Suswa from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mount Suswa is a shield volcano in the Great Rift Valley, Kenya. It is located between Narok and Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. The northwestern part of Mount Suswa is in Narok County, while the eastern and southern parts are in Kajiado County. The town with the same name, Suswa, is just northwest of the mountain and it is the main access point for visits to the mountain.

Physical features Mount Suswa has a unique double crater with a moat-like inner crater surrounding a tilted block of rock. The mountain is also known for its lava tubes on the northeast side of the outer crater.

Flora and Fauna The inner crater is home to a variety of snakes species. Other wildlife of interest found on or near Mount Suswa includes zebras, giraffes, mongooses, turtles, hyenas and leopards.

Mountaineering and Tourism It is possible to drive up the lesser-end of the mountain into the outer crater with a four-wheel-drive vehicle or motorbike; however, there are numerous barricades across the trail where members of the Mount Suswa Conservancy collect fees for allowing you through. Arrangements can be made to pay a set fee and get a guide to take you past the barricades. It is also possible to climb the mountain, which has a 2,356-meter summit. There are no specified paths, but Mount Suswa is best accessed from the mountain from the north and northeast. The Suswa Primary school, located at the base of the mountain, is another practical starting point. Also, there are many Masaai homesteads surrounding the base of the mountain; it is recommended to introduce yourself to the head of the family if your route crosses such. With the exception of Rauch's Trail, there are no designated pathways to the summit. However, the Masaai do graze cattle on the mountain's grasslands, making for the occasional route. The peak can be reached on foot by following Rauch's Trail, which begins approximately one-and-a-half kilometers from the summit, from the northeast. Rauch's Trail is marked with a wooden sign, overlooking the crater. The network of lava caves on the east side of the mountain can also be visited and some of these caves are inhabited by baboons. The BBC documentary The Great Rift: Africa's Wild Heart, shows baboons entering one of these caves to seek shelter from leopards; this underground chamber in the rocks has been nicknamed 'baboon parliament'.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mount Suswa

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mount Suswa claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mount Suswa before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mount Suswa ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mount Suswa

In research: Mount Suswa appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mount Suswa in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mount Suswa is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Lava tubes, Mountains of Kenya, Polygenetic shield volcanoes, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mount Suswa outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Mount Suswa in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mount Suswa means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mount Suswa out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mount Suswa in simple terms?

Mount Suswa is a shield volcano in the Great Rift Valley, Kenya. It is located between Narok and Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.

Why does Mount Suswa matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mount Suswa?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mount Suswa.