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Mount Nyiragongo
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Mount
Nyiragongo is located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, about
20 km north of the town of Goma and Lake Kivu and just west of the
border with Rwanda. The main crater is 250m deep, two km wide and
sometimes contains a lava lake.
A major eruption of the volcano began on January 17, 2002, after several months of increased seismic activity. A 13 km fissure opened in the south flank of the volcano, spreading in a few hours from 2800m to 1550m elevation, reaching the outskirts of the city of Goma the provincial capital on the northern shore of Lake Kivu. Lava streamed from three spatter cones at the end of the fissure and flowed in a stream 200 to 1000 m wide and up to 2m deep through Goma. Warnings had been given and 400,000 people were evacuated from the city across the Rwandan border into neighboring Gisenyi during the eruption. Lava covered the northern end of the runway at Goma International Airport, leaving the southern two-thirds usable, and reached Lake Kivu. |
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