Isotope hydrology is a nuclear technique that uncovers how water moves through the land, ocean and atmosphere. This technique provides data to facilitate informed decision making to address water management challenges.
Read more: What is Isotope Hydrology?
The IAEA-supported mission in February this year brought together two IAEA experts, two international specialists and two scientists from the University of Burundi. Over the course of the expedition, the team collected around 160 water samples from different lake depths, as well as from nearby rivers and groundwater sources.
Experts in Burundi are using isotope-based tracing techniques to better understand how water circulates within Lake Tanganyika, how its layers interact and how conditions may be changing over time. Some of these methods also help determine how long deep waters have remained isolated from the surface.
The measurements from the landmark 1973 scientific expedition provide an important scientific baseline for understanding how the lake has changed over the past half century.
“It’s very exciting to have the opportunity to reapply the isotopic techniques used in 1973 to examine how conditions in the lake may have changed over time,” said Bradley McGuire, an isotope hydrologist joining the 2026 mission from the IAEA.
