Two volcanoes 13 km apart erupting simultaneously in the Congo!

Two volcanoes 13 km apart erupting simultaneously in the Congo

The yellow and orange dots on these two satellite images are infrared signals and indicate very high temperatures. They attest that Nyamulagira and Nyiragongo, on the left and on the right respectively, are in eruption.

Even if the Nyamulagira is almost inaccessible, the satellite images and signals infrared emitted by this volcano testify to a long eruption durationmaybe since April 2018. This effusive eruption takes place at the level of a pit crater, a well-shaped crater about 400 m in diameter, which is inside a larger crater, a caldera, 2 km in diameter. These lava flows have filled this pit crater and are now invading the floor of the caldera, until it hits the edges of it.

Video presenting the filling of the Nyamulagira pit crater between 2019 and 2020 and lava flows in the summit caldera.

Another effusive eruption, 13 km away!

Since the emptying of the lava lake in May 2021, at the origin of a lateral eruption that killed around 30 people in the city of Goma, some thermal signals have also been spotted by satellites on this volcano. And even if there are no images on site that allow us to understand what is happening there, the latest satellite image shows a probably effusive eruption, at the bottom of the crater which collapsed at the aftermath of last year’s lateral eruption… What hope for a return of the famous lava lake?

Video presenting the activity of the Nyiragongo lava lake in 2016, before its emptying in May 2021.



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