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Report on Nyamulagira (DR Congo) — 17 September-23 September 2025


Nyamulagira

Smithsonian Institution / US Geological Survey
Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 17 September-23 September 2025
Managing Editor: Sally Sennert.

Please cite this report as:

Global Volcanism Program, 2025. Report on Nyamulagira (DR Congo) (Sennert, S, ed.). Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 17 September-23 September 2025. Smithsonian Institution and US Geological Survey.

Weekly Report (17 September-23 September 2025)

Nyamulagira

DR Congo

1.408°S, 29.2°E; summit elev. 3058 m

All times are local (unless otherwise noted)


The eruption at Nyamulagira continued during 3-18 September. Incandescence on the floor of the summit caldera and from active lava flows on the W and NW flanks was visible in satellite images on 3, 8, 13, and 18 September. Weather clouds obscured parts of the summit area and the flanks in all four images.

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