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'Limnic eruption': DR Congo's volcano nightmare
by AFP Staff Writers
Goma, Dr Congo (AFP) June 2, 2021

Volcano experts helicopter in to DR Congo crater
Goma, Dr Congo (AFP) June 1, 2021 - A week after Africa's most active volcano, Mount Nyiragongo, erupted in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and poured lava into the city of Goma, experts flew into a second smoking crater nearby to assess the risks.

Piloted by South Africans, a Puma helicopter from the UN's MONUSCO peacekeeping mission delivered leading volcanologists to the inside of Mount Nyamuragira, where molten lava could be seen spitting out of the ground.

Since the May 22 eruption of Nyiragongo, which overlooks Goma on the shore of Lake Kivu, nearly three dozen people have lost their lives.

It destroyed some 20,000 homes and led to an exodus of around 400,000 residents as officials urged a "preventative evacuation".

On Saturday, the government warned that Murara volcano, a crater in the Nyamuragira system, had also erupted, but the communications ministry later said this was "a false alarm", pointing to smoke from smouldering wood.

When the helicopter set down on solidified volcanic crust inside Nyamuragira, a man in a green windcheater leapt out of the hold, grinning broadly and holding a case containing a drone.

Dario Tedesco, an Italian volcanologist, has lived in Goma for several years and knows the imposing peaks almost by heart. He looked quite at home in the hostile environment 25 kilometres (15 miles) north of the city.

The lava crust crumbled under his feet as he stepped out alone amid the sulphur fumes and fog around Nyamuragira's almost 3,500-metre (11,500 foot) peak.

Tedesco unfolded a drone helipad resembling a toy, a square of blue plastic one metre across marked with a large H.

With the drone's-eye-view he could observe the lava spurts and better understand what was going on in the bowels of the beast by studying the fiery activity.

As he worked, three landslides in the internal walls of the crater in the space of an hour broke the silence with long, deep rumbles, making the intruders shiver.

It was time to return to the real world on the shore of Lake Kivu, but not before a closer look from the air at the summit of Nyiragongo, inaccessible on foot because of the intense activity in the crater.

Even its outline was impossible to make out, shrouded in clouds and a huge column of ash rising high into the sky as the sunset shaded from purple through orange and red.

On the short return flight, the huge villas of wealthy Congolese, the guesthouses of international NGOs and luxury restaurants were visible studding the shores of Lake Kivu.

Just a tiny distance away is the volcano -- almost another planet.

Orders on Thursday to evacuate Goma, a city lying in the shadow of DR Congo's Mount Nyiragongo volcano, have shed light on a rare but potentially catastrophic risk -- a "limnic eruption," when volcanic activity combined with a deep lake can spew out lethal, suffocating gas.

The phenomenon first came to the world's attention in August 1984, when 37 people mysteriously died at Lake Monoun in western Cameroon.

Scientists found that dissolved carbon dioxide (CO2) gas in the depths of the lake had erupted, creating invisible clouds at the surface that were borne by winds into homes and fields, snuffing out life.

Two years later, more than 1,700 people and thousands of cattle died in Lake Nyos, also in Cameroon, strengthening the belief that earthquakes and volcanic activity can trigger these unusual events.

More than 600,000 people live in Goma, although the region's population is around two million, in addition to more than 90,000 people who live across the border in the Rwandan city of Gisenyi.

Both cities lie on the northeastern shore of Lake Kivu, which is dominated by Nyiragongo, a strato-volcano nearly 3,500 metres (11,500 feet) high that straddles the East African Rift tectonic divide.

The much-feared volcano roared back into life on Saturday, spewing two rivers of lava over the next day that have claimed 32 lives and left around 20,000 homeless.

This was followed by hundreds of aftershocks, some of them the equivalent of small earthquakes, that have collapsed or destroyed several buildings, ripped cracks in the ground and terrified the population.

- Disaster scenario -

The evacuation order comes on the heels of a warning by the Goma Volcano Observatory (OVG), which monitors the pulse of Nyiragongo and the Nyamuragira volcano, 13 kilometres (nine miles) away.

In a technical note seen by AFP, the OVG said it saw worrying signs of activity by Nyiragongo that pointed to three potential outcomes.

In the first two scenarios, Nyiragongo would erupt again, sending renewed lava flows southwards towards Goma and Gisenyi, destroying buildings in their path before reaching Lake Kivu.

In both cases, the quantity of lava likely to enter the lake would not be enough to raise its deep-water temperature by at least one degrees Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) -- a key condition for a limnic eruption.

But in the worst-case scenario, lava flows from Nyiragongo would combine with volcanic activity under the floor of the lake.

This activity could take the form of a "fissural or phreato-magmatic eruption under the lake and/or a large earthquake of 6.5 or 7 magnitude," the OVG said.

In this scenario, "a limnic eruption would take place and dissolved gas in the lake's deep water would rise to the surface, especially CO2, asphyxiating all living beings around Lake Kivu on the Congolese and Rwandan side."

"There would be thousands of deaths," the OVG said, spelling out the need for resources to carry out an "urgent exploration" of Lake Kivu.

- Volcanic region -

The OVG also cautioned against the use of rainwater for drinking or washing food, given the ashfall from the volcano.

Six volcanoes dot the Goma region, dominated by Nyiragongo, which is 3,470 metres (11,400 feet) high, and Nyamuragira, 3,058 metres.

Nyiragongo last erupted on January 17, 2002, killing more than 100 people and covering almost all of the eastern part of Goma with lava, including half of the airport's landing strip.

Its deadliest eruption was in 1977, when more than 600 people died.

Nyamuragira is also highly active, with its last major eruption a decade ago.


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SHAKE AND BLOW
Exodus from DR Congo volcano city prompts fears of looting
Goma, Dr Congo (AFP) May 31, 2021
Fears of looting are gripping the eastern DR Congo city of Goma, whose inhabitants fled last week after warnings that the dreaded Mount Nyiragongo volcano could be on the verge of a catastrophic second eruption. Holdouts have reported cases of homes and stores being looted after the exodus, although the phenomenon seems less widespread than when Nyiragongo last kicked into life 19 years ago. Around two-thirds of Goma's population of 600,000 fled, many of them heading to Sake, around 25 kilometre ... read more

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