Page 82 - Volcano and Geothermal Tourism

Case Study 3

East Africa

Volcanoes, Glaciers and Safari Parks

Malcolm Cooper Lengai. Of these, Mt Kilimanjaro is the highest
peak in Africa at 5895m, and is made up of three
Introduction inactive volcanic cones, Kibo, Mawenzi and Shira.

Simkin and Siebert (1994) note that West Africa is the Mt Kenya, 150km north-north-east of the capital
Nairobi is the second highest mountain in Africa,
only region other than the Mediterranean with a reaching 5182m, and is an extinct volcano that
reliably dated eruption from ancient times, at Mt erupted around three million years ago with a few
Cameroon, observed by a passing Carthaginian small glaciers amongst its peaks. Mt Meru is the
navigator in the 5th century BC. In the East written third highest mountain in Africa at 4566m and is
records only appear to have been kept or geological an active volcano that last erupted in 1910. Ol
analysis carried out after the 15th century AD however, Doinyo Lengai is only 2903m, but this is an active
after the Portuguese exploration of Africa had begun, volcano that last erupted in 2007–2008. The lava
although there is undoubtedly material in earlier Arab here is completely unique in composition to any
and Chinese records that has not yet been published. other volcano (see below).
In the next 370 years another 20 or so eruptions were
recorded by European sources, but even this work did
not really get underway until after 1870. Geology
Most African volcanoes result from hotspots or Table CS3.1 lists the active and dormant volcanoes
the rifting that characterizes East Africa or a to be found associated with the East African Rift
combination of the two (Simkin and Siebert, Valley.
1994). The East African Rift Valley, which runs In East Africa, crustal spreading processes have
from Ethiopia to Tanzania through Kenya, is one of already torn Saudi Arabia away from the rest of the
the world’s most dramatic geological structures, African continent, forming the Red Sea. The
producing the continent’s highest and lowest actively splitting African Plate and the Arabian
volcanoes, ranging from the massive Kilimanjaro to Plate meet in what is known as a triple junction
vents in Ethiopia’s Danakil Depression that lie (Afar, see Chapter 3), where the Red Sea meets the
below sea level. While two volcanoes in the Gulf of Aden. A new spreading centre may be
Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Virunga developing under Africa along the East African
National Park, Nyamuragira and Nyiragongo, have Rift Zone, and if spreading continues the three
been responsible for nearly two-fifths of Africa’s plates that meet at the edge of the present-day
historical eruptions, these are part of the parallel African continent will separate completely, allowing
West African or Albertine Rift Valley discussed in the Indian Ocean to flood the area and making the
Chapter 2. To the East, the major volcanoes are Mt easternmost corner of Africa (the Horn of Africa)
Meru, Mt Kilimanjaro, Mt Kenya and Ol Doinyo a large island (Kious and Tilling, 1996).

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