New lava lake lets DR Congo volcano ‘breathe’, consultants inform

The reappearance of a lava lake within the crater of the Nyiragongo volcano in jap DR Congo is a actual signal, consultants said Sunday, four months after a predominant eruption killed 32 of us.

Nyiragongo’s eruption on Would possibly perhaps well possibly also 22-23 spewed out lava that buried properties in its wake, stopping actual in need of the northern outskirts of Goma, a metropolis of some 600,000 of us.

Celestin Kasereka Mahinda, the scientific director of the Goma Volcanology Observatory, said the “reappearance of the lava lake in Nyiragongo’s crater” dates from September 18.

“It is no longer a phenomenon that items an drawing near near threat of a unusual eruption, but somewhat a phenomenon that enables the volcano to breathe,” he told AFP.

“It is a natural signal. The appearance of this lake of fire within the crater will minimise earthquakes within the volcanic instruct of Goma.”

Nyiragongo, a strato-volcano in the case of 3,500 metres (11,500 toes) excessive, straddles the East African Rift tectonic divide.

Within the days following the eruption in Would possibly perhaps well possibly also, mighty tremors shook Goma, and scientists feared a uncommon but doubtlessly catastrophic event—a “limnic eruption” below nearby Lake Kivu that might perhaps well ship carbon dioxide fuel, dissolved within the depths of the water, up to the outside and suffocate every person within the neighborhood.

The Democratic Republic of Congo authorities ordered the evacuation of 400,000 of us as a precaution. The residents admire largely returned since seismic sigh fell wait on.

After the eruption, the disappearance of lava from the crater sparked fears that it remained buried below Goma.

“On the fresh time Nyiragongo came upon a design to breathe, which is a actual signal,” Mahinda said.

“Distress would admire persevered if the volcanic chimney remained blocked.”

Within the previous predominant eruption in 2002, round 100 of us died and swathes of jap Goma admire been destroyed.

Nyiragongo’s deadliest eruption, in 1977, claimed extra than 600 lives.

© 2021 AFP