Satellite images acquired on 17 and 22 March showed continuing activity at Nyamuragira. A bright thermal anomaly just NE of the central part of the summit crater was visible in both images, along with surrounding elevated temperatures on the E half of the crater floor, likely from lava flows. Although weather and volcanic gas plumes obscured most of the W flank, a small incandescent spot from an active lava flow on the upper W flank was visible in the 17 March image.

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 13 km NNW 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.

Source: Copernicus