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herald by fiery lava fountain and plume of poisonous gas , a new lava lake has appeared atop one of Africa ’s most fighting volcanoes for the first sentence in 75 years .
The lava lake at Nyamuragiravolcanoin the Democratic Republic of the Congo ( DR Congo ) simmers late within the meridian ’s North Pit Crater . Though the churning lava seems to come and go , scientists consider the vent may finally spawn a long - live lava lake .
The lava lake at the summit of Nyamuragira volcano in DR Congo.
At the minute , " it ’s a very small-scale , bubbling lava lake , " said Benoit Smets , a volcanologist at the European Center for Geodynamics and Seismology in Luxembourg . " It melt and reappears , but if the current activity continues , we will probably have a lava lake like we have at [ neighboring volcano ] Nyiragongo within a few years to decades . "
Both Nyamuragira and the neighbor Nyiragongo are part of the Virunga volcanic Ernst Boris Chain in theEast African Riftnear Lake Kivu and DR Congo ’s border with Rwanda . The volcanoes are among the few on Earth that have sustained lava lake for several decades . Nyamuragira ’s last molten puddle void in 1938 in spectacular way , with lava pelt out of the summit and flowing more than 18 knot ( 30 kilometers ) to Lake Kivu .
The new lava lake is at the bottom of a 1,650 - ft - deep ( 500 meters ) crater go away behind by that flood . [ Photos : The World ’s Five Most Active Volcanoes ]
Volcanic gas steams from Nyamuragira volcano.
vent vigilance
scientist have anticipated the new lava lake ’s birth since March 2012 , whenNyamuragira ’s last eruptionsuddenly end with earthquakes and knock-down explosion . The violence marked a collapse at the pit volcanic crater , likely in response to lava rate of flow part emptying the vent ’s underground magma chamber , Smets say . ( Between Nov. 8 , 2011 , and March 2012 , Nyamuragira ’s forested incline were flood with 7 billion cubic foot ( 200 million three-dimensional metre ) of lava . )
Those rumbles opened a raw route within the volcano for magma to trip up to the tip , blood-related to the vent clear its throat , researchers think . " We felt this was the first mark of a future lava lake , " Smets told Live Science .
A satellite view of lava lakes and gas plumes from Nyamuragira and Nyiragongo volcanoes.
The approximation that a lava lake would organize was also justified by the volcano ’s radiation pattern of past eruptions . Nyamuragira seems bicycle its eruptions , with flare-up progressing in time from bottom to top . For illustration , after the summit lava lake drained in the thirties , the next eruptions were at the base of the vent , Smets say . By the nineties , outbreak were higher up , breaking through fissures close to the tip , he enounce . [ story ’s Most Destructive Volcanoes ]
When did the lake var. ?
draw close within Nyamuragira ’s summit caldera , the pitlike crater and lava lake are often obliterate by clouds of sulfur dioxide flatulency . Nyamuragira vents more sulfur dioxide than any other vent in the mankind , said Robin Campion , a volcanologist at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico City .
silene said he call back the sulphur dioxide emission suggest the lava lake in reality make soon after the pit crater collapse in 2012.Sulfur dioxide gaslevels never dropped off after the 2011 - 2012 blast terminate , Campion read . " I acknowledge something was very strange , because I was always seeing that [ sulfur dioxide ] was quite in high spirits , " Campion told Live Science . " Only the formation of a lava lake could explicate these high values . "
Campion issue his findings Nov. 7 in the journalGeophysical Research Letters .
But Smets disagrees that the lake shape that long ago . In former July , United Nations peacekeeper cast off Smets and a group of scientists from the DR Congo , Belgium , Luxembourg and Italy off at the top by helicopter , to check on the volcanic crater . They saw fire fountains spurt from the volcanic crater , but there was no lava lake there yet , Smets reported Oct. 21 inEos , the weekly newspaper of the American Geophysical Union .
But Campion countered that the photos from that July whirlybird survey actually show a fountaining lava lake . He noted that in Hawaii , Kilauea volcano ’s lava lakewas also satiate with vigorous fire fountains soon after it shape . " I really call back [ Nyamuragira ] is the early level of a permanent lava lake , " he aver .
Distant observers have also weighed in on the disputation . Earlier this year , satellites picked up hotter - than - usual temperatures above Nyamuragira in April and recent June , leadingNASA ’s Earth Observatoryto conclude that a new lava lake had formed . The body process buy the farm down in August and then spiked again this calendar month .
The summit also started burn red at nighttime in April and June , and scientist at the Goma Volcano Observatory — the Congolese scientific institute in charge of vent monitoring — discover strange temblor swarms that are distinctive of liquified rock-and-roll ( magma ) move underground during these months .
The back - and - forth reflects both science at work and the trouble of mould in the DR Congo , researchers said . Smets said the public debate was in the end settled this month , when Goma Volcano Observatory scientist saw an active lava lake during a Nov. 6 chopper survey . Researchers often must rely on visual or satellite monitoring of DR Congo volcano because , for safety intellect , instrument often ca n’t be left in the field , Smets said . In the eastern part of the country , near the volcanoes , dozens of armed chemical group continue to fight , despite ataraxis agreements . More than 21,000 U.N. personnel were in the rural area as of Sept. 30 .
Eruptions at either Nyamuragira or Nyiragongo can jeopardize nearby townsfolk , include Sake and Goma . On Jan. 17 , 2002 , an eructation from Nyiragongo destruct much of Goma , go out 200,000 mass dispossessed . However , Nyiragongo is more of a jeopardy because it looms nearer to communities , whereas Nyamuragira is beleaguer by a home park , Smets say .
The more quick scourge from Nyamuragira is acid pelting from its volcanic gas pedal , which corrodes roofs , destruct harvest and affects human health .
