Report on Nyamulagira (DR Congo) — 28 August-3 September 2024
Smithsonian Institution / US Geological Survey
Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 28 August-3 September 2024
Managing Editor: Sally Sennert.
Please cite this report as:
Global Volcanism Program, 2024. Report on Nyamulagira (DR Congo) (Sennert, S, ed.). Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 28 August-3 September 2024. Smithsonian Institution and US Geological Survey.
Nyamulagira
DR Congo
1.408°S, 29.2°E; summit elev. 3058 m
All times are local (unless otherwise noted)
In a 3 September satellite image of Nyamuragira part of the end of the lava flow on the WNW flank was visible through weather clouds in a small area about 5.8 km from the center of the caldera. The lava was incandescent, suggesting continued activity. Part of the flow on the NNW flank was visible through the clouds in an area about 3.6 km from the center of the caldera, but it appeared black and was likely cooling.
Geological Summary. Africa's most active volcano, Nyamulagira (also known as Nyamuragira), is a massive high-potassium basaltic shield about 25 km N of Lake Kivu and 13 km NNW of the steep-sided Nyiragongo volcano. The summit is truncated by a small 2 x 2.3 km caldera that has walls up to about 100 m high. Documented eruptions have occurred within the summit caldera, as well as from the numerous flank fissures and cinder cones. A lava lake in the summit crater, active since at least 1921, drained in 1938, at the time of a major flank eruption. Recent lava flows extend down the flanks more than 30 km from the summit as far as Lake Kivu; extensive lava flows from this volcano have covered 1,500 km2 of the western branch of the East African Rift.
Source: Copernicus