"When the desert was a lake: Drilling the northern Kalahari"

The Okavango rift zone and delta, and the Makgadikgadi paleo-megalake form a dynamic system in northern Kalahari, where tectonic activity, climate change, sedimentation, and biota have interacted in a complex pattern. Paleogenomics and regional climate modeling studies recently suggested that the region may have been a hotspot for Homo sapiens evolution. Here we present results from the first scientific deep drilling project (OKAMAK) in the northern Kalahari, Botswana. Two drill cores, OKA (230 meters) and MAK (210 m), were drilled in the Okavango delta and Makgadikgadi paleolake, respectively. Cores recovered shallow and deep-water sands, muds and evaporitic lithologies of the Cenozoic Kalahari Group extending across the unconformity into the pre-Cenozoic Karoo Group sandstones. Focusing on the Quaternary, we discuss stratigraphy and initial multiproxy data, the potential for developing chronologies and interpreting the complex climate of the region, history of river piracy, evolution of the delta and infilling phases of Makgadikgadi and assess the international collaborative potential of this yet to be fully understood region.