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Report on Ol Doinyo Lengai (Tanzania) — 31 October-6 November 2007


Ol Doinyo Lengai

Smithsonian Institution / US Geological Survey
Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 31 October-6 November 2007
Managing Editor: Sally Sennert.

Please cite this report as:

Global Volcanism Program, 2007. Report on Ol Doinyo Lengai (Tanzania) (Sennert, S, ed.). Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 31 October-6 November 2007. Smithsonian Institution and US Geological Survey.

Weekly Report (31 October-6 November 2007)

Ol Doinyo Lengai

Tanzania

2.764°S, 35.914°E; summit elev. 2962 m

All times are local (unless otherwise noted)


According to Frederick Belton's Ol Doinyo Lengai website, the owner of a camp on the S shore of Lake Natron reported that ash eruptions continued "daily" and some "lava eruptions" were observed at night. Based on pilot observations, the Toulouse VAAC reported an eruption on 6 November.

Geological Summary. The symmetrical Ol Doinyo Lengai is the only volcano known to have erupted carbonatite tephras and lavas in historical time. The prominent stratovolcano, known to the Maasai as "The Mountain of God," rises abruptly above the broad plain south of Lake Natron in the Gregory Rift Valley. The cone-building stage ended about 15,000 years ago and was followed by periodic ejection of natrocarbonatitic and nephelinite tephra during the Holocene. Historical eruptions have consisted of smaller tephra ejections and emission of numerous natrocarbonatitic lava flows on the floor of the summit crater and occasionally down the upper flanks. The depth and morphology of the northern crater have changed dramatically during the course of historical eruptions, ranging from steep crater walls about 200 m deep in the mid-20th century to shallow platforms mostly filling the crater. Long-term lava effusion in the summit crater beginning in 1983 had by the turn of the century mostly filled the northern crater; by late 1998 lava had begun overflowing the crater rim.

Sources: Toulouse Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC), Ol Doinyo Lengai (Fred Belton)