Mount Nyamuragira also popularly called Nyamulagira is Africa’s and one of the most powerful volcanoes in the world. This active volcano sprawls within the Virunga Region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and derives its name from the Kifuru and Kishi verb; Kuragira ngavu denoting to herd cows where ngavu means cow or cows.
Nyamuragira Volcano is 25kms North of Lake Kivu and stands at elevation of up-to 3063m. This volcano mountain lies just near Goma city of Congo in the Kivu Province, 13kms North of Mt. Nyiragongo. It is Africa’s most active volcano known to erupt at least after every 2 years emitting a large fluid lava flow.
Mount Nyamuragira is a vast high-potassium basaltic shield volcano lying 25kms North of Lake Kivu along the East African Rift Valley, Northwest of Nyiragongo. It spreads to cover an area of 1500sq.kms in the East African rift with volume of 500 cubic kilometers. The broad shield volcano features a summit caldera, 2kms wide and walls rising up to over 100m high. It is a typical shield volcano that has had eruptions inside the summit caldera and from the extensive rift zones along its flanks, resulting into several fissures and cinder cones.
2011 to 2012; Kimanura flank eruption.
Mount Nyamuragira recorded a new flank eruption on 6th November 2011 where a series of E-W aligned fissures occurred 10kms east of the caldera’s summit. The eruption began with massive ground fracturing and tall lava fountains from most vents which built themselves faster on the western Kimanura cone complex. Its lava flows moved several kilometers to the North, burning a bigger area of forest cover though it didn’t cause any damage on the infrastructure.
Tall fountaining took about one week and traveled to intense spattering from active lava lake filled vents and strombolian explosions. Considering the wind direction, places around the vents got about 1m of lapilli and scoria fallout. A 2nd cluster of vents opened about 1km down slopes along the same fissure system in the early January and resulted into lava fountains. The similar sized complex of vents also built up best described as Kimanura vent complex and the western complex lava fountaining merged into a form of intense spattering from boiling lava lake activity. This action continued to move to the north and on 2nd February, the eruption kept on occurring. This is considerably one of the largest eruptions to occur in the last 100 years.
Mt. Nyamuragira can take hikers a day and each group is led by an experienced an armed guide. It is 3-4 hours’ trek to the summits of this volcano and the preferred accommodation is camping. To enjoy the best of Nyamuragira tour, you need a rain jacket, waterproof hiking boots, sun screen, walking stick, camera, snacks, bottled water, and insect repellents.
Best time to climb.
The best time to hike Mount Nyamuragira Volcano is during the drier months; January, July and August. But note, the weather conditions do fluctuate because it can rain at any time of the day or year.
Getting there.
Nyamuragira is found in eastern Congo, near Virunga National Park, 2 hours’ drive from Kigali to Goma Town of Congo. From Goma, proceed North of Lake Kivu to begin your Nyamuragira adventure.
