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Mount Karisimbi

Karisimbi

Stratovolcano · DR Congo-Rwanda · 4490m

The Karisimbi volcanic complex (center) includes a symmetrical, peaked summit flanked to the SE by the 2-km-wide Branca caldera, which is filled by viscous lava flows and two craters. The smaller Muntango crater is located S of the summit. A broad lava plain composed of flows erupted within the caldera and along a chain of parasitic cones, extends SW. Eroded Mikeno volcano is at the upper left and Visoke volcano at the upper right of this Landsat image.
The Karisimbi volcanic complex (center) includes a symmetrical, peaked summit flanked to the SE by the 2-km-wide Branca caldera, which is filled by viscous lava flows and two craters. The smaller Muntango crater is located S of the summit. A broad lava plain composed of flows erupted within the caldera and along a chain of parasitic cones, extends SW. Eroded Mikeno volcano is at the upper left and Visoke volcano at the upper right of this Landsat image. · Photo: NASA Landsat image, 1999 (courtesy of Hawaii Synergy Project, Univ. of Hawaii Institute of Geophysics & Planetology). · Wikimedia Commons
Type
Stratovolcano
Country
DR Congo-Rwanda
Region
Eastern Africa Volcanic Regions / Albertine Rift Volcanic Province
Elevation
4490m
Coordinates
-1.506, 29.450
Last eruption
-8050
Tectonic setting
Rift zone / Continental crust (> 25 km)
Landform
Composite
Major rock type
Trachybasalt / Tephrite Basanite
Geological summary

Karisimbi is a complex basanitic-to-trachytic volcano with a symmetrical sharp-peaked summit. The 2-km-wide Branca caldera, located SE of the summit, is filled by viscous lava flows and two explosion craters. The large 1.2-km-wide Muntango pit crater is located south of the summit. A broad lava plain, formed from lava flows erupted within the caldera and along a chain of cones, extends SW. More than 100 cones erupted along a NNE-SSW zone that extends to the shores of Lake Kivu. The youngest Potassium-Argon date obtained is about 10,000 years before present (de Mulder, 1985). The youngest eruptions produced a group of dome-shaped vents east of the caldera, which fed viscous lava flows that traveled as far as 12 km E, and lava flows from the SW-flank lava vents.

From Wikipedia

Mount Karisimbi is a stratovolcano in the Virunga Mountains on the border between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. At 4,507 metres (14,787 ft), Karisimbi is the highest of the eight major mountains of the mountain range, which is a part of Albertine Rift, the western branch of the East African Rift. Karisimbi is flanked by Mikeno to the north, Bisoke to the east and Nyiragongo to the west, on the other side of the Rift Valley. Karisimbi is the 11th highest mountain of Africa and ranked 61st by prominence.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA · Read full article →

Eruption history

Summary (VEI over time)
Click a bar to see individual eruptions
8050 BCE~8050 BCE · 1 eruptions · max VEI ?8050 BCE8050 BCE8049 BCE8049 BCE8049 BCE

Detailed timeline

  1. 8050 BCEVEI ?Geological estimate
    BCE 8050 – Ongoing

External links

⚠ For reference only. Not for emergency response.