Mount Nyiragongo is an active strato – volcano with an elevation of 3,470 metres (11,380 ft) in the Virunga Mountains associated with the Albertine Rift. It is located inside Virunga National Park, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, about 20 km (12 mi) north of the town of Goma and Lake Kivu and just west of the border with Rwanda. The main crater is about two kilometers wide and usually contains a lava lake. The crater presently has two distinct cooled lava benches within the crater walls – one at about 3,175 m (10,417 ft) and a lower one at about 2,975 m (9,760 ft). You can visit both Rwanda and Congo on a combined gorilla safari and Nyiragongo Hike and this can be a 4, 5 or 6 day expedition.
Nyiragongo’s lava lake has at times been the most voluminous known lava lake in recent history. The depth of the lava lake varies considerably. A maximum elevation of the lava lake was recorded at about 3,250 m (10,660 ft) prior to the January 1977 eruption – a lake depth of about 600 m (2,000 ft). A recent very low elevation of the lava lake was recorded at about 2,700 m (8,900 ft). Nyiragongo and nearby Nyamulagira are together responsible for 40% of Africa’s historical volcanic eruptions.
In contrast to its neighbor volcano, Nyamulagira, – a typical and very active shield volcano comparable with Mauna Loa, – the 3470-m-high Nyiragongo displays the steep slopes of a strato volcano. Terraces inside the steep-walled, 1.2-km-wide summit crater mark levels of former lava lakes, which have been observed since the late-19th century.
Two older volcanoes, Baruta and Shaheru, are partially overlapped by Nyiragongo on the north and south and look like lateral cones. About 100 parasitic cones are located primarily along radial fissures south of Shaheru, east of the summit, and along a NE-SW zone extending as far as Lake Kivu. Many cones are buried by voluminous lava flows that extend long distances down the flanks of the volcano.
Location of mount Nyiragongo
Mount Nyiragongo is located inside Virunga National Park, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, about 20 km north of the town of Goma and Lake Kivu. It is one of the most active volcanoes in Africa, and one of eight volcanoes in the Virunga Mountains. The main crater is about 2 km wide and usually contains a lava lake which appears in the summit crater.
Eruptive History
1977
Drained Lava Lake, killed over 1,000 people because fast moving flows
1994
Rwandan refugees fleeing during the eruption caused a lot of destruction
2002
Lava flows through down town of Goma and reaches Lake Kivu, only to 150 km depth. The most recent large eruption of Nyiragongo occurred in 2002 where 147 people killed. During this eruption lava flows moved through the city of Goma on the shores of Lake Kivu destroying 13% of the city and approximately 12,000 to 15,000 homes displaced hundreds of thousands of people flows entered Lake Kivu and posed a threat of releasing the CO2 and CH4 stored within the lake.
When to go
The Democratic Republic of Congo tends to experience two seasons, the dry and wet seasons therefore the best time to visit the Nyiragongo volcano is all year round but keep in mind there is unpredictable weather changes such as regular rains during certain months of the year because Nyiragongo is in the middle of equatorial rain forests. For example in mid-March to May and as well as November tends to be a rainy season, the dry season however begins in June – October and also December.
