volcanic mountains in eastern africa
Two neighboring volcanoes in Zaire's (today's Democratic Republic of the Congo) Virunga National Park, Nyamuragira and Nyiragongo, are responsible for nearly … Mount Elgon is another volcanic … [10] Others proposed an African superplume causing mantle deformation. [citation needed]. The range lies between the Lake Kivu and Lake Edward, and is an extension of the Albertine Rift Mountains. [citation needed] The seismicity trends parallel to the rift system, with a shallow focal depth of 12–15 km (7.5–9.3 mi) beneath the rift axis. Mountain Paricutin which is located in Mexico. At its base the range is some 80 miles long, and its greatest width is about 30 miles. Over time, many theories have tried to clarify the evolution of the East African Rift. Periods of extension alternated with times of relative inactivity. Kibo cone is at right, Mawensi (Mawenzi) at left. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Acacia trees on the plain below the summits of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. The East African Rift (EAR) or East African Rift System (EARS) is an active continental rift zone in East Africa. [2] The rift system consists of three microplates, the Victoria Microplate to the north, and the Rovuma and Lwandle microplates to the south. [1] In the past it was considered to be part of a larger Great Rift Valley that extended north to Asia Minor. The long-extinct volcano of Mount Kenya has been much denuded, and the highest peaks consist of the crystalline nepheline-syenite (a granular rock of alkalic feldspar, nepheline, and other minerals), which plugged the former vent. The EAR is the largest seismically active rift system on Earth today. The results corroborate the coexistence of a superplume “common to the entire rift” with another mantle material source being either of subcontinental type or of mid-ocean ridge type. [16] In accordance, a study of Halldórsson et al. More than 30 small glaciers on the Ruwenzori together cover a surface of approximately 1.5 square miles (4 square km), most of which is on Mounts Stanley and Speke; the lowest valley glacier descends to about 14,000 feet. Mount Elgon (4,321 meters) or 14,177ft. Mount Mtelo (Sekerr) is the fifth highest ‘mountain’ in Kenya, after Mt Kenya, Mt Elgon, … Meru and Mt. The Virunga Mountains and their associated lava flows extend across the Western Rift Valley. The EAR began developing around the onset of the Miocene, 22–25 million years ago. [3][4], As extension continues, lithospheric rupture will occur within 10 million years; the Somali Plate will break off and a new ocean basin will form. On Kilimanjaro, Kibo crater is strewn with giant blocks of ice, and the outer rims are covered with ice reaching down to about 16,000 feet on the wet southwestern moorlands. The EAR also cuts through old sedimentary rocks deposited in ancient basins. The lushly forested slopes of the mountains form an appropriately dramatic natural setting for what is arguably the most poignant and memorable wildlife … [14] The question is still debated. These processes further thin the lithosphere in saturated areas, making the thinning lithosphere behave like a mid-ocean ridge.[12]. Located in East Africa, the Virunga Mountains are a series of volcanoes that extends along northern part of Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Uganda. The Ruwenzori Range stretches between Lakes Edward and Albert on the Uganda-Congo border, and farther south the Virunga Mountains extend along the contiguous borders of Uganda, Rwanda, and Congo. [5] The second stage of rifting is characterized by the deactivation of large boundary faults, the development of internal fault segments, and the concentration of magmatic activity towards the rifts. Vollständige Liste unter ugandagorillatrekkingfromkigali.com anzeigen The 2002 Nyiragongo eruption destroyed much of Goma, Congo. Mount Meru, about 40 miles southwest of Kilimanjaro, attains an altitude of 14,978 feet. The Eastern Arc ecoregion extends in elevational patches along a chain of isolated mountain ranges, from the Taita Hills, close to the Kenyan border with Tanzania, down through eastern Tanzania to the gap between the Udzungwa Mountains and Mt. Longonot, Mt. Nyiragongo in the DRC and the Tibesti mountains in Chad. [32], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}3°00′00″S 35°30′00″E / 3.0000°S 35.5000°E / -3.0000; 35.5000, An active continental rift zone in East Africa, GFZ GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Helmholtz Centre (June 8, 2020), "Continental break-up: The East African perspective", "One of Africa's Tectonic Plates Is Rotating in a Different Direction to All the Others", "Why the Victoria Plate in Africa rotates", "A catalogue of deep mantle plumes: New results from finite‐frequency tomography", "A common mantle plume source beneath the entire East African Rift System revealed by coupled helium-neon systematics", "Multiple mantle upwellings in the transition zone beneath the northern East-African Rift system from relative P-wave travel-time tomography", "Upper mantle earth structure in Africa from full‐wave ambient noise tomography", "Contrasted continental rifting via plume-craton interaction: Applications to Central East African Rift", "Plume-induced continental rifting and break-up in ultra-slow extension context: Insights from 3D numerical modeling", "Geology and Nonfuel Mineral Deposits of Africa and Middle East", "Remote sensing of heat, lava and fumarole emissions from Erta 'Ale volcano, Ethiopia", https://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=221060, https://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=222120, "Voluminous lava flows at Oldoinyo Lengai in 2006: chronology of events and insights into the shallow magmatic system", "Great Rift Valley Ecosystem – UNESCO World Heritage Centre", List of countries where Arabic is an official language, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=East_African_Rift&oldid=1011982105, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from March 2019, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2020, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2021, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 13 March 2021, at 23:05. Other Volcanic mountains in Africa include Mt. in 2014 compare the geochemical signature of rare Earth's isotopes from xenoliths and lava samples collected in the EAR. Margherita Peak in the Ruwenzori Mountains, Uganda. [22], A large volume of continental flood basalts erupted during the Oligocene, with the majority of the volcanism coinciding with the opening of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden approximately 30 Ma. Around this core are gently dipping lavas, agglomerates, and tuffs. Major eruptions occurred in 1912, 1938, 1948, the 1970s, and 2002. Mountain (climbing) weather forecasts for 2 elevations of Akan, Akan Volcanic Complex, Japanese Archipelago, Japan. The world’s largest lava lake is the main attraction when climbing Mount Nyiragongo, a beautiful stratovolcano in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Richard and Mary Leakey have also done significant work in this region. Other mountains in the Eastern Rift area include Mount Elgon in Kenya and … Best Volcano Hikes and Climbs in Uganda. The peneplain of eastern Africa, dating from the Miocene Epoch (about 23 to 5.3 million years ago), has been subject to a general elevational movement. The Ruwenzori Range runs parallel to the Western Rift Valley, to which it drops steeply. A 3D numerical geodynamical model of the plume-crust coupling was capable of reproducing the lateral asymmetry of the EAR around the Tanzania craton. As a result, Africa’s tallest mountains … [20] Numerical modeling of plume-induced continental break-up shows two distinct stages, crustal rifting followed by lithospheric breakup, and the upwelling between stages of an upper mantle plume.[21]. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Studies that contribute to the broader understanding on the evolution of rifts can be grouped into the techniques of isotope geochemistry, seismic tomography and geodynamical modeling. It extends from Ethiopia to Tanzania, crossing zones of major political unrest that can make travel awkward, not to say downright dangerous. Mount Elgon. These rifts are the result of the actions of numerous normal faults which are typical of all tectonic rift zones. The latter retains its caldera—1.5 miles in diameter and 600 feet deep—within which there are found successive inner cones and craters as well as fumaroles (holes or vents that emit gases). The cratons are thick, and have survived for billions of years with little tectonic activity. Kenya (17,058 feet), located just north of the country’s capital of Nairobi, near the equator, is the source of Kenya’s name. Notable active examples of EAR volcanism include Erta Ale, Dalaffilla (also called Gabuli, Alu-Dalafilla), and Ol Doinyo Lengai. The most dramatic uplift is that of the Ruwenzori, the only East African mountains that are not volcanic. The bones of several hominid ancestors of modern humans have been found here, including those of "Lucy", a partial australopithecine skeleton discovered by anthropologist Donald Johanson dating back over 3 million years. Some of the volcanoes in East Africa include Mount Muhavura, Mount Kilimanjaro (5,895m), Virunga Mountains, Mount Elgon (4,321m), Ol Doinyo Lenga (2,962m), Mount Karisimbi (4,507m), Mount Meru (4,565m), Mount Longonot (2,776m),Mount Menengai (2,278 metres), Erta Ale (613m), Bisoke (3,711m), Gahinga (3,474m) etc. [18][19], Parallel to geological and geophysical measures (e.g. To the north of the Afar Triple Junction, the rift follows one of two paths: west to the Red Sea Rift or east to the Aden Ridge in the Gulf of Aden. [6] The Davie Ridge ranges between 30–120 km (19–75 mi) wide, with a west-facing scarp (east-plunging arch) along the southern half of its length that rises to 2,300 m (7,500 ft) above the sea floor. Professor of History, North Carolina State University. As aforementioned, voluminous magmatism and continental flood basalts characterize some of the rift segments, while other segments, such as the Western branch, have only very small volumes of volcanic rock. Their more powerful predecessors, however, extended down to altitudes between 12,000 and 10,000 feet and even lower and produced arêtes (sharp-edged ridges), cirques (glacial amphitheatres), rock tarns (rock basin lakes), U-shaped valleys, and moraines (boulders and other debris deposited by glacial action). Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa and fourth highest of the Seven Summits, is considered the tallest freestanding mountain in the world, rising 15,100 feet (4,600 meters) from base to summit.Kilimanjaro is also the most prominent mountain in Africa. While planning your Rwanda safari, one should not miss out on the magnificent opportunity to visit Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park consisting of 125 km2 of mountain forest and home to the six Virunga Volcanoes and the world famous mountain gorillas. Over time, steep mountains form along one side of the fault. [14] Seismic events in the past century are estimated to have reached a maximum moment magnitude of 7.0. Examples of volcanic mountains in Eastern Africa are Mt. Mount Elgon is part of the Eastern Volcanics in Uganda, which consist of soda-rich lavas and associated fragmental tuffs and agglomerates. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. The Eastern Rift Valley (also known as Gregory Rift) includes the Main Ethiopian Rift, running eastward from the Afar Triple Junction, which continues south as the Kenyan Rift Valley. Jebel Marra in Sudan, Mt. [6] The Western Rift Valley includes the Albertine Rift, and farther south, the valley of Lake Malawi. Mount Stanley is 5,109… A narrow zone, the rift is a developing divergent tectonic plate boundary where the African Plate is in the process of splitting into two tectonic plates, called the Somali Plate and the Nubian Plate, at a rate of 6–7 mm (0.24–0.28 in) per year.