Global Volcanism Program

The Global Volcanism Program has no activity reports available for Suswa.

The Global Volcanism Program has no Weekly Reports available for Suswa.

The Global Volcanism Program has no Bulletin Reports available for Suswa.

This compilation of synonyms and subsidiary features may not be comprehensive. Features are organized into four major categories: Cones, Craters, Domes, and Thermal Features. Synonyms of features appear indented below the primary name. In some cases additional feature type, elevation, or location details are provided.

Synonyms

Susua

Cones

Feature Name

Feature Type

Elevation

Latitude

Longitude

Onyoke, Ol Doinyo
    Nyukie, Ol Doinyo
    Nyuki, Doinya La
    Red Mountain

Stratovolcano

2337 m

1° 10' 29" S

36° 20' 54" E

Sampu Olkuo
Manyatta

Pyroclastic cone

Craters

Feature Name

Feature Type

Elevation

Latitude

Longitude

Enkorika

Fissure vent

Basic Data

Volcano Number

Last Known Eruption

Elevation

Latitude
Longitude

222110

Unknown - Evidence Credible

2,356 m / 7,730 ft

1.151°S
36.357°E

Morphology

Volcano Landform
Shield

Volcano Types
Shield
Caldera
Stratovolcano

Rock Types

Major
Phonolite
Trachyte / Trachydacite

Minor
Trachybasalt / Tephrite Basanite

Tectonic Setting

Rift zone
Continental crust (> 25 km)

Population

Within 5 km
Within 10 km
Within 30 km
Within 100 km

474
4,041
105,232
6,914,644

Geological Summary

The southernmost caldera of the Kenya rift, Suswa contains a prominent lava cone on the south side of its 8 x 12 km caldera. Suswa lies south of Longonot volcano and about 50 km WNW of the capital city of Nairobi. Construction of an early shield volcano was followed by eruption of voluminous Pleistocene pumice and lava flows that accompanied incremental formation of the caldera. The 2356-m summit of the phonolitic-to-trachytic volcano is formed by the post-caldera lava cone of Ol Doinyo Onyoke ("The Red Mountain," also known as Ol Doinyo Nyukie) on the south side of the caldera. Its large elongated summit crater is truncated on the north by a ring graben. This unusual 5-km-wide circular graben at the center of the older caldera isolates a tilted island block of caldera-floor lava flows. The latest eruptions have originated from satellitic vents that issued lava flows which remain unvegetated and may be only a century or so old.

References

The following references have all been used during the compilation of data for this volcano, it is not a comprehensive bibliography.

Johnson R W, 1969. Volcanic geology of Mount Suswa, Kenya. Phil Trans Roy Soc London, 265: 383-412.

McCall G J H, Bristow C M, 1965. An introductory account of Suswa volcano, Kenya. Bull Volcanol, 28: 333-367.

Nash W P, Carmichael I S E, Johnson R W, 1969. The mineralogy and petrology of Mount Suswa, Kenya. J Petr, 10: 409-439.

Richard J J, Neumann van Padang M, 1957. Africa and the Red Sea. Catalog of Active Volcanoes of the World and Solfatara Fields, Rome: IAVCEI 4: 1-118.

Skilling I P, 1993. Incremental caldera collapse of Suswa volcano, Gregory Rift Valley, Kenya. J Geol Soc London, 150: 885-896.

Williams L A J, Macdonald R, Chapman G R, 1984. Late Quaternary caldera volcanoes of the Kenya Rift Valley. J. Geophys. Res, 89: 8553-8570.

Eruptive History

The Global Volcanism Program is not aware of any Holocene eruptions from Suswa. If this volcano has had large eruptions (VEI >= 4) prior to 12,000 years ago, information might be found on the Suswa page in the LaMEVE (Large Magnitude Explosive Volcanic Eruptions) database, a part of the Volcano Global Risk Identification and Analysis Project (VOGRIPA).

Deformation History

There is data available for 1 deformation periods. Expand each entry for additional details.

Deformation during 1997 - 2000 [Subsidence; Observed by InSAR]

Start Date: 1997

Stop Date: 2000

Direction: Subsidence

Method: InSAR

Magnitude: 5.000 cm

Spatial Extent: Unknown

Latitude: Unknown

Longitude: Unknown

Suswa in 1997?2000. Each fringe (blue-red cycle) represents 2.8 cm of displacement in the satellite line of sight.

From: Biggs et al. 2009a.

Reference List: Biggs et al. 2009a.

Full References:

Biggs J, Amelung F, Gourmelen N, Dixon T, 2009. InSAR Observations of 2007 Tanzania Rifting Episode Reveals Mixed Fault and Dyke Extension in an Immature Continental Rift. Geophysical Journal International. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.2009.04262.x

Emission History

There is no Emissions History data available for Suswa.

Photo Gallery

Suswa is a broad low shield volcano that is cut by the southernmost caldera of the Kenya rift. The 8 x 12 km caldera is filled by a broad lava cone. An unusual 5-km-wide ring graben, seen here from the west, cuts the lava cone. The ring graben isolates a tilted island block (left). Ol Doinyo Nyukie ("The Red Mountain") forms the summit of Suswa volcano (right). The latest eruptions of Suswa have originated from parasitic vents that have issued still-unvegetated lava flows that may be only a century or so old.

Copyrighted photo by Katia and Maurice Krafft, 1976.

The central caldera of Suswa, the southernmost caldera of the Kenya rift, contains a 5-km-wide caldera. Construction of an early shield volcano was followed by eruption of voluminous pyroclastic flows and lava flows that accompanied formation of the caldera. The latest eruptions have originated from vents that have issued still-unvegetated lava flows that may be only a century or so old. N is to the top in this NASA Landsat image.

NASA Landsat 7 image (worldwind.arc.nasa.gov)

Suswa is the southernmost volcano of the Central Kenya Peralkaline Province (CKPP). The shield volcano has nested summit calderas that are visible in the center of this December 2019 Planet Labs satellite image mosaic (N at the top), with widths of 12 km for the largest caldera and 5.5 km for the inner caldera. More recent lava flows appear darker in this image.

Satellite image courtesy of Planet Labs Inc., 2019 (https://www.planet.com/).

GVP Map Holdings

Maps are not currently available due to technical issues.

Smithsonian Sample Collections Database

There are no samples for Suswa in the Smithsonian's NMNH Department of Mineral Sciences Rock and Ore collection.

External Sites

Copernicus Browser

The Copernicus Browser replaced the Sentinel Hub Playground browser in 2023, to provide access to Earth observation archives from the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem, the main distribution platform for data from the EU Copernicus missions.

MIROVA

Middle InfraRed Observation of Volcanic Activity (MIROVA) is a near real time volcanic hot-spot detection system based on the analysis of MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) data. In particular, MIROVA uses the Middle InfraRed Radiation (MIR), measured over target volcanoes, in order to detect, locate and measure the heat radiation sourced from volcanic activity.

MODVOLC Thermal Alerts

Using infrared satellite Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data, scientists at the Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawai'i, developed an automated system called MODVOLC to map thermal hot-spots in near real time. For each MODIS image, the algorithm automatically scans each 1 km pixel within it to check for high-temperature hot-spots. When one is found the date, time, location, and intensity are recorded. MODIS looks at every square km of the Earth every 48 hours, once during the day and once during the night, and the presence of two MODIS sensors in space allows at least four hot-spot observations every two days. Each day updated global maps are compiled to display the locations of all hot spots detected in the previous 24 hours. There is a drop-down list with volcano names which allow users to 'zoom-in' and examine the distribution of hot-spots at a variety of spatial scales.

WOVOdat
   Single Volcano View
   Temporal Evolution of Unrest
   Side by Side Volcanoes

WOVOdat is a database of volcanic unrest; instrumentally and visually recorded changes in seismicity, ground deformation, gas emission, and other parameters from their normal baselines. It is sponsored by the World Organization of Volcano Observatories (WOVO) and presently hosted at the Earth Observatory of Singapore.

GVMID Data on Volcano Monitoring Infrastructure The Global Volcano Monitoring Infrastructure Database GVMID, is aimed at documenting and improving capabilities of volcano monitoring from the ground and space. GVMID should provide a snapshot and baseline view of the techniques and instrumentation that are in place at various volcanoes, which can be use by volcano observatories as reference to setup new monitoring system or improving networks at a specific volcano. These data will allow identification of what monitoring gaps exist, which can be then targeted by remote sensing infrastructure and future instrument deployments.

Volcanic Hazard Maps

The IAVCEI Commission on Volcanic Hazards and Risk has a Volcanic Hazard Maps database designed to serve as a resource for hazard mappers (or other interested parties) to explore how common issues in hazard map development have been addressed at different volcanoes, in different countries, for different hazards, and for different intended audiences. In addition to the comprehensive, searchable Volcanic Hazard Maps Database, this website contains information about diversity of volcanic hazard maps, illustrated using examples from the database. This site is for educational purposes related to volcanic hazard maps. Hazard maps found on this website should not be used for emergency purposes. For the most recent, official hazard map for a particular volcano, please seek out the proper institutional authorities on the matter.

IRIS seismic stations/networks

Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) Data Services map showing the location of seismic stations from all available networks (permanent or temporary) within a radius of 0.18° (about 20 km at mid-latitudes) from the given location of Suswa. Users can customize a variety of filters and options in the left panel. Note that if there are no stations are known the map will default to show the entire world with a "No data matched request" error notice.

UNAVCO GPS/GNSS stations

Geodetic Data Services map from UNAVCO showing the location of GPS/GNSS stations from all available networks (permanent or temporary) within a radius of 20 km from the given location of Suswa. Users can customize the data search based on station or network names, location, and time window. Requires Adobe Flash Player.

DECADE Data

The DECADE portal, still in the developmental stage, serves as an example of the proposed interoperability between The Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program, the Mapping Gas Emissions (MaGa) Database, and the EarthChem Geochemical Portal. The Deep Earth Carbon Degassing (DECADE) initiative seeks to use new and established technologies to determine accurate global fluxes of volcanic CO₂ to the atmosphere, but installing CO₂ monitoring networks on 20 of the world's 150 most actively degassing volcanoes. The group uses related laboratory-based studies (direct gas sampling and analysis, melt inclusions) to provide new data for direct degassing of deep earth carbon to the atmosphere.

Large Eruptions of Suswa

Information about large Quaternary eruptions (VEI >= 4) is cataloged in the Large Magnitude Explosive Volcanic Eruptions (LaMEVE) database of the Volcano Global Risk Identification and Analysis Project (VOGRIPA).

EarthChem

EarthChem develops and maintains databases, software, and services that support the preservation, discovery, access and analysis of geochemical data, and facilitate their integration with the broad array of other available earth science parameters. EarthChem is operated by a joint team of disciplinary scientists, data scientists, data managers and information technology developers who are part of the NSF-funded data facility Integrated Earth Data Applications (IEDA). IEDA is a collaborative effort of EarthChem and the Marine Geoscience Data System (MGDS).