According to news articles, a team of volcanologists from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Goma Volcanological Observatory stated that seismicity dramatically increased at Nyamuragira about 25 February. In a statement released to UN headquarters the team of volcanologists said they expect Nyamuragira to erupt within the next several days or weeks. They added that the population near the volcano should not be worried by the warning. Dario Tedesco, a UN volcanology consultant, expressed concerns that seismic activity near Lake Kivu could upset the balanced layers of carbon dioxide and methane in the bottom of the lake, leading to the release of toxic gases. Nyamuragira is ~13 km NW of Nyiragongo and ~30 km NW of the city of Goma, which was devastated by lava flows from Nyiragongo in January 2002. Nyamuragira last erupted in February 2001.

Geological Summary. Africa's most active volcano, Nyamulagira (also known as Nyamuragira), is a massive high-potassium basaltic shield about 25 km N of Lake Kivu and 15 km NE of the steep-sided Nyiragongo volcano. The summit is truncated by a small 2 x 2.3 km caldera that has walls up to about 100 m high. Documented eruptions have occurred within the summit caldera, as well as from the numerous flank fissures and cinder cones. A lava lake in the summit crater, active since at least 1921, drained in 1938, at the time of a major flank eruption. Recent lava flows extend down the flanks more than 30 km from the summit as far as Lake Kivu; extensive lava flows from this volcano have covered 1,500 km2 of the western branch of the East African Rift.

Sources: Reuters, Associated Press