GLOBAL VOLCANISM: "What Did You Do To The Mountain" - Rumbling Africa Volcano Nyiragongo Has Goma Observatory Experts Concerned!

Nyirangongo volcano in new phase of activity.
© The Weather Network

April 11, 2016 - CONGO - The question I keep getting when I tell people that I jumped into Nyiragongo, an active volcano in the Democratic Republic of Congo is: "What did you do to the mountain!?"

It's an odd question, but it makes sense when you realize that Nyiragongo is suddenly undergoing a new, more active phase. And it's got the volcanologists at the Goma Observatory worried.

New activity in the crater over the last few weeks has spurred the scientists into action as a new vent has opened up on the ledge just above the lava lake. This was preceded by a series of earthquakes that knocked large rocks off the crater walls that I had only recently scaled.

The ledge that the vent opened on is the one that I didn't make it down to, but the rest of the team did. However, I did stand directly above the area in which it opened, but, at the time, I took no notice of the nondescript ground far below me. I had zero inkling that less then 10 days after I left, magma would boil out of a newly formed crack in the earth.

The vent has formed on the side of the caldera closest to the city of Goma at the base of the mountain. In addition, new fumoroles (gas and steam vents) have opened up on the flank of the volcano close to where lava erupted in the 2002 eruption. In that eruption, 147 people lost their lives and over a third of Goma was destroyed.

The eruption was not explosive like Mount St. Helens, but instead, effusive like Mount Kilauea in Hawaii. During the eruption of Nyiragongo, lava flowed down the slopes from cracks in the side of the mountain at speeds that reached 100 km/h. The chemical composition of the rock makes the lava extremely liquid.

The concern right now is that this active phase could be a signal that a new eruption is imminent.

Since the 2002 eruption, the city has expanded, but still lacks basic infrastructure that would allow quick evacuation. Goma simply is not a city that can be evacuated fast.

When I was there, only a few roads were fully paved and those were within the city core. The sprawling conglomeration of tin roofed shacks and cinder block buildings stretched haphazardly in every direction. Despite the efforts to rebuild the city after the long civil war, it is functional but struggling. Evacuation is simply not an option. This is why observation and early warning are critical to survival in the city.

The proximity of the city to the mountain is why Nyiragongo has been declared a Decade Volcano. These are 16 volcanoes identified by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior (IAVCEI) as being worthy of particular study in light of their history of large, destructive eruptions and proximity to populated areas. Essentially, it's a list of the most dangerous volcanoes on the planet.

The greater danger lurks under the water of Lake Kivu. Goma sprawls out along the northern shore of the lake and deep in its depths is a massive amount of carbon dioxide that is slowly building thanks to the volcano.

Think of it like a pop bottle with the top on. Open it up and a bit of gas may fizz up. Now, shake that bottle and pop the top. The resulting eruption of gas and liquid will end up soaking the room and you.

Lake Kivu is similar, only on a far more vast scale. The weight of the water above the gas-saturated deep layers acts as a top, keeping the gas in solution. However, if the concentration of carbon dioxide builds to a critical level, it could all come out of the lake at once.

This isn't likely to happen any time soon as the concentration is still too low. The danger is disturbance. If the volcano erupts and lava makes it to the lake, an eruption of the gas, known as a limnic eruption, could take place. That eruption would spill titanic amounts of carbon dioxide into the areas around the lake and potentially kill hundreds of thousands of people.


WATCH: Top 5 most dangerous volcanoes in the world.

It is an eerie feeling to see these pictures of the Nyiragongo crater and realize that I was standing on a volcano that was mere moments from stirring to life. And a terrifying feeling that I may end up returning to a city that is slowly being engulfed in a new eruption of burning, liquid rock. - The Weather Network.

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: Mount Nyiragongo In Congo Showing Signs Of Imminent Eruption - Aircrafts Cautioned Against Flying Over The Volcano!

 Mount Nyiragongo's lava lake has at times been the most voluminous known lava lake in recent history

March 25, 2016 - CONGO - Rwanda Red Cross has warned of a possible Nyiragongo volcano eruption in the near future, the country's daily The New Times has reported.

Nyiragongo is one of the eight volcanic mountains in the Virunga Massif. The volcano is located near the town of Goma in eastern DR Congo, close to the Rwandan border.

Press reports from Kigali, indicate that local researchers have reported that that since February 28, 2016 Nyiragongo volcano increased signs of imminent eruption.
The New Times quoted, Dr Dyrckx Dushime, the head of Red Cross in Rubavu District, saying that the active volcano has recently released magma from one hole to another of two kilometers that form smoke on the top of it.

He explained that the volcano now releases polluted gas in the air between 5000 and 50,000 tonnes, per day which include a lot of sand.

Although he said people should not panic, he however cautioned aircrafts against flying over the volcano for fear of engine damage.

Dushime also warned residents in neighbouring areas against using unclean water, especially from rain and to wash vegetables before cooking.

The newspaper also reported that Rwanda's Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs' personnel were monitoring developments in the Virunga Massif

The Nyiragongo volcano last erupted in 2002, causing a lot of damage in both countries and displacing about 400,000 people. - New Vision.

 

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: Satellite Spies Congo's Nyiragongo Volcano - Could Warn Of Eruption!

June 11, 2014 - CONGO, AFRICA - Italian scientists have successfully used data from an orbiting satellite six miles above the Earth to measure the temperature, thickness and volume of the lava in a fiery lake inside the 11,400-foot summit of the Nyiragongo volcano at in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They say the technique could be used to monitor volcanoes in remote spots across the planet.

Photo: The lava lake bubbling inside Nyiragongo. Credit: Cai Tjeenk Willink, via Wikimedia Commons.

The researchers, from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Catania, Italy, compared data collected from space by Meteosat, a weather satellite operated by a European research consortium.

The information was collected by an instrument called the Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager (SEVIRI), and it matched the results from data collected by a ground-based thermal camera.Their methods are detailed in this article in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

The lava temperature inside Nyiragongo’s lake can reach 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit.

The researchers previously used the same method in 2011 to measure the temperature of a lava fountain inside Mount Etna in Italy, but this was the first time the Congolese volcano had been measured from space. The ability to monitor Nyiragongo and spot an eruption early is important because the city of Goma and its million inhabitants are just 7.5 miles away.

Amazingly, intrepid researchers actually have climbed the volcano and visited the lava lake. Back in 1960, documentary filmmaker Haroun Tazieff made a a documentary, The Devil’s Blast, that revealed for the first time the glowing inferno. In 2010, the summit was visited by a team that included photographer Olivier Grunewald, who got to within a few feet of the lake to take these close-up images. - Discovery News.

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: NASA Satellite Detects Large Plume From DR Congo's Nyamuragira Volcano!

July 19, 2013 - DR CONGO - Recent NASA satellite images from 11 June 2013 show a thick steam and gas plume rising from a pit crater in the summit caldera of Nyamuragira volcano.

No evidence of lava close to the surface was found, while the lava lake in neighboring Nyiragongo remains well active and visible on the same images. Nyamuragira’s plume was rich in water vapor — which condenses rapidly in the humid tropical air — and sulfur dioxide, which lends a blue tint in natural-color satellite imagery.

Carbon dioxide, fluorine, and chlorine gas are also found in Nyamuragira lavas and likely present in the gas plume. Located near the eastern boundary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nyamuragira is one of Africa’s most active volcanoes.

If degassing magma was near the surface, then the intense heat would cause a bright red glow in shortwave infrared light. No such glow is visible atop Nyamuragira, but it is present on neighboring Nyiragongo Volcano, which has featured a lava lake for more than a decade.

The images were collected on June 11, 2013, by the Operational Land Imager on Landsat 8. In natural color (top), the rainforest is dark green, clouds are white, and the sulfur-rich volcanic plume is very light blue. Barren land at Nyamuragira’s summit and lava flows is brown or black.

In false-color, clouds are mostly white and volcanic plumes are cyan. Forest and other vegetation is bright green. Fresh lava flows from the 2011–12 eruption of Nyamuragira are black, and older lava flows appear as brown tendrils running down the mountain’s flanks. Agricultural fields in the southeast (lower right) corner of the image also appear brown. - Volcano Discovery.

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: Nyamuragira Volcano in the DR Congo Update - New Lava Lake Forming in the Summit Crater?!

Nyamuragira volcano in the DR Congo might be forming a new lava lake in its summit caldera.

Lava fountains from the Nyamuragira volcano, seen in January, this year.

The volcano's last eruption from the Kimanura fissure NE of the summit caldera seems to have ended by now. Until early to mid March, a lava lake was observed in the eastern vent and a strong heat source could be detected on satellite imagery, but has now disappeared.

Seismic explosion signals from a source under the summit were noted on 24 February from the summit crater and overflights showed increased degassing from the central pit, which contained a lava lake until 1940. This activity increased in April and a strong SO2 odor from this area suggests the presence of near-surface magma. Scientists and the park rangers are speculating about the possibility that a new lava lake in the summit crater might be about to form. - Volcano Discovery.

WATCH: Nyamuragira volcano erupts (January, 2012).

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: Nyamuragira Volcano in DR Congo Update - Eruption Continues With Lava Fountains and Lava Flow!

The eruption at Nyamuragira volcano (DR Congo) continues with lava fountains 50-150 m high, ejections of incandescent bombs reaching up to 600 m, and the emission of an aa lava flow from the second (eastern) vent. - Volcano Discovery.

Lava fountain and the active lava flow emerging from the breach of
the erupting flank cone of Nyamuragira volcano (8 Jan 2012).

Lava fountains from Nyamuragira volcano (8 Jan 2012).

The Volcano Discovery group at the erupting flank cone of Nyamuragira volcano (8 Jan 2012).

According to the Weekly Volcanic Activity Report from the Smithsonian's Global Volcanism Program and the US Geological Survey's Volcano Hazards Program:

Satellite imagery acquired on 3 January from the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA's EO-1 satellite showed an active lava flow to the NE of the central vent over the fissure located 11-12 km ENE of Nyamuragira's main crater. A sulfur dioxide-rich plume was also detected. Geologic Summary. Africa's most active volcano, Nyamuragira (Also spelled Nyamulagira) is a massive basaltic shield volcano N of Lake Kivu and NW of Nyiragongo volcano. Lava flows from Nyamuragira cover 1,500 sq km of the East African Rift. The 3058-m-high summit is truncated by a small 2 x 2.3 km summit caldera that has walls up to about 100 m high. About 40 historical eruptions have occurred since the mid-19th century within the summit caldera and from numerous fissures and cinder cones on the volcano's flanks. A lava lake in the summit crater, active since at least 1921, drained in 1938. Twentieth-century flank lava flows extend more than 30 km from the summit, reaching as far as Lake Kivu.

WATCH: Nyamuragira volcano erupts.

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: Biggest and Most Spectacular Volcanic Eruption In Eastern Congo in a Century - Tourists Invited To See The Eruption!

Tourists in eastern Congo are being invited to spend the night by a spectacular eruption at Africa's most active volcano. Mount Nyamulagira, in Virunga National Park, has been spewing out 200m high fountains of bright red lava since the beginning of November. It is its biggest eruption in a century.

A national park in Congo best known for its endangered mountain gorillas is now inviting tourists to go on overnight treks to see a volcano spurting fountains of lava nearly 1,000 feet into the air. Mount Nyamulagira began erupting on Nov. 6 and could continue to do so for days, or even months. "Last night's was the most spectacular yet," spokeswoman LuAnne Chad said Monday from Virunga National Park. Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano attracted tourists earlier this year when a fissure had lava spurting 65 feet (20 meters) high. In comparison, volcanologist Dario Tedesco estimated that the lava on Mount Nyamulagira in Congo is spewing up to 980 feet high (300 meters) high.

Park wardens have named the latest Nyamulagira eruption "Kimanura," after the name of the area along the volcano's flank, spokeswoman Chad said. Rivers of incandescent lava are flowing slowly north into an uninhabited part of the park, but that the lava flows pose no danger to the park's critically endangered mountain gorillas, a statement from the park said. Virunga Park is home to 200 of the world's 790 mountain gorillas, as well as lowland gorillas, chimpanzees, okapi, forest elephants and buffalo. The park has set up a tented camp nearly one mile (1.5 kilometers) south of the eruption where tourists can spend the night. For $300, the park provides transportation for the hour-long drive from the eastern capital of Goma and wardens to guide visitors on the three- to four-hour hike to the camp.

Virunga is located in eastern Congo, where numerous militia and rebel groups continue to terrorize the population nearly a decade after the country's civil war ended. Some 360 park rangers protect the park and its wildlife from poachers, rebel groups, illegal miners and land invasions. Rangers worked through the civil war in eastern Congo's five parks, with more than 150 killed in the last 10 years, according to the statement. The 3,000 square-mile (7,800 square-kilometer) Virunga National Park is a World Heritage site containing seven of the eight volcanoes in the Virunga mountain range that sprawls across the borders of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. Only two are active – Nyamulagira and, closer to Goma, Mount Nyiragongo. Nyiragongo erupted destructively in 2002, destroying most of Goma city including 14,000 homes and forcing 350,000 residents to flee. - Huffington Post.

WATCH: Congo Volcano becomes tourist trek hot spot.

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: Congo's Nyamuragira Volcano Erupts!

A spectacular fire show started last night when Nyamulagira volcano (also known as Nyamuragira) began an eruption that happens about every two years.

The eruption could be seen clearly from park headquarters - probably the best view you could ask for. It appears that the eruption is not happening on the volcano itself, but on the side and lower to the ground. We’ll fill you in on details once we have them.This is not the volcano that tourists hike to see the lava lake, but a far more active volcano just to the north. Most of the lava flows north into an area where no one lives, so it shouldn’t bring harm to people or wildlife as the flow is moving slowly. Eruptions like this one can go on for days, weeks, or even months, so we’ll update you on the status. - Gorilla CD.

Nyamuragira volcano in the DRCongo started to erupt last night as park rangers of the Virunga National Park report on facebook. Nyamuragira is a large shield volcano north of Nyiragongo volcano near Goma town and belongs to the Virunga National Park. Its eruptions produce curtains of fire and large lava flows, which normally are no harm to inhabited areas as the volcano is very remote. In recent years, it has been almost impossible to access due to the presence of armed guerrilla troops hiding in this area. - Volcano Discovery.

WATCH: Nyamuragira Volcano erupts.