It was seen for several days prior to and after 4 December in the same region between Nyiragongo and Nyamuragira. Both cones were about 300 m high. MIROVA (Middle InfraRed Observation of Volcanic Activity) analysis of MODIS satellite data shows strong, frequent thermal anomalies within 5 km of the summit between June through November (figure 86). Activity briefly declined on 7 August and stopped for 12 hours on the 8th, then a new lava fountain developed the next day. Table 2 shows OMI's estimated SO2 loadings during 28 November to 4 December 2006 as computed by Simon Carn. The eruption was preceded by an earthquake swarm on 10-11 October. Earthquakes related to fracturing continued, mainly S of Nyiragongo (N of Lake Kivu ) and NE of Nyamuragira. 2013: July . Seismicity increased greatly at the Goma seismic station; it was mainly tremor, but not at the same high levels of July 2002. Because of political instability, the team lacked access to the field. Reference. Information Contacts: M. Krafft, Cernay; M. Matson, NOAA; USGS/NEIS; Kampala Domestic Service, Uganda; WCBS Radio, USA. Table 3. During a flight over Nyamuragira on 27 September, researchers confirmed that the eruption had ended. During 6-8 August a team composed of scientists from the Goma Volcano Observatory (GVO) (Kaseraka Mahinda and François Lukaya) and a UN-OCHA consultant volcanologist (Jacques Durieux) made a survey trip to the active eruption site of Nyamuragira. OVG reported increased volcanic seismicity during 1-3 and 10-17 September 2018, and also during October, located in the crater area, mostly at depths of 0-5 km. Lava flows from the vent extended several kilometers N. Numerous small breakouts formed secondary flows, and a large breakout about 2 km N of the cone fed a large lava flow about 20 m wide. Nyamuragira (Nyamulagira) Volcano Nyamuragira volcano (3058m) is a large basaltic shield volcano located about 15 km north of the city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 21) developed SE of cone 19 on 19 July, feeding a lava fountain that was visible 5 km away. Simple stochastic modelling of the eruption history of a basaltic volcano: Nyamuragira, Zaire. The lava was a basanite with numerous augite and olivine phenocrysts. For more than a week, cloud cover mostly obscured the view from space until the Advanced Land Imager on NASA’s EO-1 satellite captured images on November 12, 2011. Seismicity generally consisted of long-period (LP) earthquakes on the NE side of the volcano. Richard J J, Neumann van Padang M, 1957. Beginning on 26 July around 0000, a steam-and-ash plume was visible on METEOSAT satellite imagery, below 6 km altitude, drifting to the WSW. The well-defined cloud extended ~800 km NW from the volcano across the Democratic Republic of Congo on 6 February (figure 18a), covering an area of ~160,000 km2, with the highest SO2 values concentrated in a narrow band towards the N edge of the plume. In those areas ash and gas caused many people to experience fever, diarrhea, headache, conjunctivitis, and respiratory problems. Abundant sulfur dioxide emissions at Nyamuragira during November 2011-April 2017 show large variations in both magnitude and frequency during the period (table 3). Seismicity steadily increased from <200 volcanic events/month in 1960-65 to ~300-400/month in the early 1980's (figure 13). During 27 January-2 February, the MODIS sensor aboard the Earth Observing System (EOS) satellite frequently detected thermal anomalies from Nyamuragira. A strong eruption at Nyamuragira (the volcano's name in the Kinyarwanda language, but "Nyamulagira" in other DR Congo languages) ... three lava flows have reached the lake within the last 100 years, and acid rains and pyroclastic falls have regularly affected crops and urban zones in this area. After this point the size and intensity of the anomaly rapidly diminished (detected anomalies after mid-August were no more than 8 pixels in size). Nyiragongo and the shield volcano. When a team from the CRSN visited the eruption site 21-25 September, a cinder cone (cone 1 on figure 8) had already reached 60 m height and lava was fountaining to as much as 180 m above the surrounding lava field. According to GVO, this seismicity was located very close to the surface. References. Lava had flowed 20 km to the W and the lava field had an average width of 2.5 km (figure 5). Information Contacts: S. Peyer and H. Peyer, Gisenyi, Rwanda; H-L. Hody, GEOVAR, Kigali, Rwanda. Depths for all of the earthquakes decreased from W to E and from S to N, suggesting a volcanic conduit rising in a generally NE direction towards the surface on the ESE flank of Nyamuragira. On 6 July 2005, the Goma Volcano Observatory (GVO) reported that a significant seismic crisis had occurred at Nyamuragira in late June 2005. Only weak gas emission was observed the next day. Areas up to 30 km from the eruption site, including the highly populated town of Goma, were also affected. | February Rob Wright reported that this linear anomaly corresponded to an extensive lava flow. Information Contacts: N. Zana, CRSN, Bukavu. Nyamuragira volcano (14 km NW of Nyiragongo) also began erupting on 4 July from W of the crater. Note the continuity of more elevated anomalies starting in November 2014, when there was clear evidence of the lava lake. Congo reported that the intensity of the lava flows decreased in March, but there was a large amount of smoke and relatively high seismic activity. As mentioned at the top of this report, Smets also noted that the lava lake continued to exist through and beyond January 2015 (the end of this reporting interval). Residents living in the villages of Katale and Tongo, the settlements closest to the volcano, reported rumblings on 30 April, in addition to clear noises of individual explosions. A small lava lake filled the crater and cascaded over the S wall of the cone. Eruptive activity probably stopped that afternoon. . Images from May 2019 showed a smaller but persistent thermal anomaly within the crater. MODVOLC Thermal Alerts. High lava fountains feed lava flow on NW flank. Earthquake swarm, then fissure eruption feeds lava flows. Observations were performed by members of the GVO, the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), the Royal Museum for Central Africa (Belgium), and the National Museum of Natural History of Luxembourg. Bobrowski, N., Calabrese, S., Giuffrida, G., Scaglione, S., Liotta, M., Brusca, L., D'Alessandro, W., Yalire, M., Arellano, S., Galle, B., Tedesco, D, 2015, Intercomparison of gas emissions from the lava lakes of Nyiragongo and Nyamulagira, DR Congo/ Plume composition and volatile flux from Nyamulagira volcano, (abstract) Geophysical Research Abstracts, 2015 European Geophysical Union Meeting, Vienna, Austria (URL: http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2015/EGU2015-6540.pdf; http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2015/EGU2015-13100-1.pdf), Campion, R., 2014, New lava lake at Nyamuragira volcano revealed by combined ASTER and OMI SO2 measurements, 7 November 2014, Geophysical Research Letters (URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014GL061808/full). During the next 24 hours a large quantity of lava was discharged, forming a mass of blocks in a steep 10-m-high crest at the edge of the flow. Intermittent swarms of LP events (60-80 events each time) occurred on Nyamuragira two to three times per week. This report covers activity at Nyamuragira (aka Nyamulagira), primarily from April 2014 to January 2015, during which time there were intervals with lava fountains, high SO2 fluxes, elevated thermal infrared emissions, and high seismicity. Sources: Observatoire Volcanologique de Goma (OVG); OMI Sulfur Dioxide Group. Based on precursory activity before previous historical eruptions at Nyamuragira, GVO reported that a new eruption might occur in the next 2-4 months. . Airline flight crews reported plumes to 7.5 km altitude on 15 and 20 October. Nyamuragira has a volume of 500 cubic km, and covers an area of 1,500 km GVO reported that the cone emerged 3.2 km SSE of the summit, just to the W of one that erupted in 2000 and practically at the same elevation (figure 34). Eruption during 6 November 2011 to April 2012; pit crater morphology changes. Clouds may have obscured the view at times. The Washington VAAC also reported a large sulfur dioxide plume in the vicinity during 10-11 January. Each day updated global maps are compiled to display the locations of all hot spots detected in the previous 24 hours. An eruption from a new crater on the SW flank of Nyamuragira began on 23 December. A number of anomalous pixels indicating a hot spot just N of Nyamuragira were observed at 1030 on 9 May from the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) thermal satellite imagery (URL: http://modis.higp.hawaii.edu/). Local tectonic earthquakes from late May through late June were 0-27 km deep, with an aseismic zone at 3-7 km. This flank fissure eruption . Journal of hazardous materials, 244, 570-581. The most recent eruption on Nyamuragira volcano occurred in 2014. A large quantity of tephra, including Pele's hairs and tears, fell within 25 km of the vents, damaging vegetation and killing many animals (see below). Bottom: Zoom of the phase-only version of the same interferogram. Nyamuragira volcano is an active volcano in the Virunga Mountains of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, situated about 25 km north of Lake Kivu. apparently began on 20 or 22 September . Descending RADARSAT-1 wrapped interferogram (26 October 1998 to 25 January 2000, incidence angle c. 358, Hamb 1?4 27 m) showing deformation associated with Nyamulagira?s 2000 eruption. All of the events on the plot that correspond to thermal anomalies are in the categories labeled low, moderate, and high. Mus Roy Afr Centr, Tervuren (Belg), Dept Geol Mineral, Rapp Ann 1977, p 157-175. This observation suggested to Tedesco (2010) that magma was already close to the surface before the eruption. The latter was interpreted as the location of a magma chamber, the same position as the chamber that fed the 27 July 2002 eruption. Scientists from the Lwiro Natural Science Research Centre in Bukavu said abnormal activity was initially detected in December. The lava fountains from the flank fissure built a ~150-m-high spatter cone.". Satellite infrared data, collected by MODIS sensor to estimate pixels thermal anomaly of hot spots were analized, the radiance emitted at 3,959 and 12.02μm for each pixel and the thermal emissions at Nyamulagira feall into three distinct radiating regimes released during the 2011–2012 eruption. Volcanoes Nyiragongo and Nyamuragira: Geophysical Aspects. Lava flows from the vent extended several kilometers N. Numerous small breakouts formed secondary flows, and a large breakout ~2 km N of the cone fed a large lava flow ~20 m wide. The Alert Level remained at Yellow. Investigations were attempted during 28-29 January. The plume first traveled W, then curved along an arc progressing in a clockwise direction toward the NE and then E. It remained clearly detectable over NW India, a distance of ~ 9,000 km. Nyamuragira erupts every one or two years. In hand specimen, the lava appeared to be a typical Nyamuragira hawaiite. Consistent with other observations of the formation of a lava lake, alerts increased on 1 November and continued during 6–10 and 22–26 November. Thermal data. For the eruption's first two weeks, lava fountaining was confined to the S end of a fissure ~500 m long. About 3 LOS range increase fringes (~35 cm) are seen to the east of the fissure and about half a range decrease fringe (~6 cm) is seen to the west. During 27 October-2 November, seismic data were collected at eight operational stations (Katale, Kibumba, Bulengo, Rusayo, Luboga, Goma, Lwiro, and Kunene). A preliminary analysis of data from the Meteor-3 TOMS for 5-10 July revealed a small area of very high SO2 over the Nyiragongo/Nyamuragira area. Nyamulagira (or Nyamuragira, 3058 m a.s.l.) It is also a few kilometers from mountain Nyiragongo which killed a lot of people in Goma when it erupted in 2002. A lava lake that had been active for many years emptied from the central crater in 1938. Large SO2 plumes and intermittent lava lake during 2013-2017. The crisis consisted of swarms of mainly long-period earthquakes, which increased in number daily and peaked on 26 and 27 June. An unusually large earthquake (Mw 6.1-6.2) and its aftershock (Mw 5.5) struck the region on 24 October 2002. At that time, however, weak tremor still consistently registered, with slightly less at Nyamuragira (Katale station) than at Nyiragongo (Rusayo station). More than 25 eruptions have been documented from Nyamuragira since 1882. More information and map of late-1991 fissure eruption. During this month, there was a sharp decrease in the lava lake level, and it is no longer visible. National Park guards saw "smoke" rising above the volcano about an hour earlier. In contrast, there were frequent thermal alerts from June 2014-April 2016 when SO2 emissions were also high. Information Contacts: IRS; M. Krafft, Cernay. GORISK was an initiative of both the National Museum of Natural History (Luxembourg) and the Royal Museum for Central Africa (Belgium). The activity took place in the Virunga area, located in the central part of Western arm of the East African rift valley. Several farmers reported problems caused by cattle eating ash-laden grass. A plume of scoria and ash rose 6 km or slightly more. The eruption site was described as a flat area with a 500-1,000-m-long fissure, oriented perpendicular to the Albertine (Western) rift. Geologists concluded that the fissure had been simultaneously active throughout its length. Burt M L, Wadge G, Scott W A, 1994. Thermal anomaly data from MIROVA suggest a pulse of activity during late April through early June 2016 (figure 62 D). Lava flows were fed through lava tubes, with fresh lava mainly visible at night. Very little ground-based data is available to confirm the eruptive activity of 2017. One lava flow traveled to the N from the several-km-long fracture, while a smaller one traveled to the S. On the 27th the lava flows were 6-7 km long and ~1 km wide. The volcano is situated about 40 km NE of the city of Goma in an area held by the rebel group Congo Rally for Democracy. Permanent tremor was registered. The imaged plume was truncated by a data gap at that point, but no SO2 was detected beyond the gap ~600 km farther W. The highest SO2 concentrations (~86 milli atm cm) were recorded immediately W of Nyamuragira. Bukavu, DR Congo; Simon Carn, TOMS Volcanic Emissions Group, University of Maryland, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA (URL: https://so2.gsfc.nasa.gov/). 2019: May 1 December 2006) the lava flow field was at the edge of the image swath (i.e. During the first episode, from late May to early September 2014, lava fountains were observed in early July, and reported to be active through September (BGVN 40.01). Geophysical Studies of Volcanoes Nyiragongo and Nyamuragira. NE-flank fissures continue to produce lava. Beginning on 11 January, this height began to decrease irregularly to 50-150 m high. Thermal hotspots identified by MODVOLC from 15 December 2019 through March 2020 were mainly located in the active central crater, with only three hotspots just outside the SW crater rim (figure 89). 5.98 x 106 m2 based on the spatial resolution of the image. Virunga National Park has been closed for months. The lava lake remained active with periodic surges of thermal activity during November 2018-March 2019 (figure 82). Lava flowed 500 m in a direction south and southwest of the volcano. TOMS observations. Nyamuragira (or Nyamulagira) is frequently active, either within the summit caldera, or more problematically from varying locations on the flanks. Figures 19 and 20 show examples of the hot spot maps for Nyamuragira during 7-12 February. They created hot spot maps that show the positions of thermal anomalies that were detected on 7, 8, 11, and 12 February. Their log said that the ". . SO2 concentrations over the volcano were somewhat lower at ~45 milli atm cm. According to the NASA MEASURES dataset, total atmospheric column SO2 spiked during 19 to 26 June 2014. Visible satellite imagery acquired by the Toulouse Volcanic Ash Advisory Center on 20 October did not show any evidence of an ash plume, but convective clouds were obscuring the area. More specifically, the forest surrounding Nyamuragira has been partly occupied by rebel groups since 1994, a situation that has thwarted geological observations. At about 2300 on 10 March an aa lava flow from the E vents flooded the area of the new vent and carried away its small cone. Shock waves from explosions occasionally shook tents 3 km away, but these could not be correlated with increases in lava fountain heights.