Global Volcanism Program | Bufumbira Volcanic Field

The Global Volcanism Program has no activity reports available for Bufumbira Volcanic Field.

The Global Volcanism Program has no Weekly Reports available for Bufumbira Volcanic Field.

The Global Volcanism Program has no Bulletin Reports available for Bufumbira Volcanic Field.

Basic Data

Volcano Number

Last Known Eruption

Elevation

Latitude
Longitude

223070

Pleistocene

2,100 m / 6,890 ft

1.304°S
29.683°E

Morphology

Volcano Landform
Cluster

Volcano Types
Volcanic field
Pyroclastic cone(s)

Rock Types

Major
Phono-tephrite / Tephri-phonolite
Trachyandesite / Basaltic Trachyandesite
Trachybasalt / Tephrite Basanite
Trachyte / Trachydacite
Foidite

Tectonic Setting

Rift zone
Continental crust (> 25 km)

Population

Within 5 km
Within 10 km
Within 30 km
Within 100 km

436,134
436,134
830,916
10,342,253

Geological Summary

The Bufumbira Volcanic Field in SW Uganda consists of a group of about 40 cinder cones over an area of about 320 km² extending 20 km N of the large stratovolcanoes of the NE portion of the Virunga Mountains. The rocks are noted for their unusual ultrapotassic chemistry, including silica undersaturated and vesicular basalts (Barifaijo et al., 2010). The cinder cones occur in clusters, were erupted along lineaments, and are typically breached on one side by lava flows. The youngest ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dated samples reported by Pitcavage et al. (2021) were about 21 ka.

References

The following references have all been used during the compilation of data for this volcano, it is not a comprehensive bibliography.

Barette F, Poppe S, Smets B, Benbakkar M, Kervyn M, 2017. Spatial variation of volcanic rock geochemistry in the Virunga Volcanic Province: Statistical analysis of an integrated database. Journal of African Earth Sciences, 134:888-903. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2016.09.018

Barifaijo E, Muwanga A, Schumann A, 2010. Geochemistry of the Potassic Basalts from the Bufumbira Volcanic Field in Southwestern Uganda. Tanzania Journal of Science 36.

Ferguson A K, Cundari A, 1975. Petrological aspects and evolution of the leucite bearing lavas from Bufumbira, south west Uganda. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 50: 25-46.

IAVCEI, 1973-80. Post-Miocene Volcanoes of the World. IAVCEI Data Sheets, Rome, International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior.

Jack E M, 1913. The Bufumbiro Mountains. Geog Jour, 41: 532-550.

Pitcavage E, Furman T, Nelson W R, Kalegga P K, Barifaijo E, 2021. Petrogenesis of primitive lavas from the Toro Ankole and Virunga Volcanic Provinces: Metasomatic mineralogy beneath East Africa's Western Rift. Lithos, 396–397:106192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lithos.2021.106192

Simmons W C, 1930. Notes on the petrology of the Bufumbira volcanic rocks of Uganda. Geological Magazine, 67:11, 491-499. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0016756800099672

Eruptive History

The Global Volcanism Program is not aware of any Holocene eruptions from Bufumbira Volcanic Field. If this volcano has had large eruptions (VEI >= 4) prior to 12,000 years ago, information might be found on the Bufumbira Volcanic Field page in the LaMEVE (Large Magnitude Explosive Volcanic Eruptions) database, a part of the Volcano Global Risk Identification and Analysis Project (VOGRIPA).

The Global Volcanism Program has no synonyms or subfeatures listed for Bufumbira Volcanic Field.

Photo Gallery

Scoria cones of the Bufumbira volcanic field in SW Uganda (center) lie N of the large stratovolcanoes of the NE part of the Virunga Mountains. The roughly 40 scoria cones occur in clusters and were erupted along lineaments and are typically breached on one side by lava flows. The Bufumbira rocks are noted for their unusual ultrapotassic chemistry. Muhavura (center) and Sabinyo (left) stratovolcanoes are visible at the bottom of this Landsat image.

NASA Landsat image, 1999 (courtesy of Hawaii Synergy Project, Univ. of Hawaii Institute of Geophysics & Planetology). Thumbnail Photo (see caption)

The Bufumbira volcanic field in SW Uganda contains numerous scoria cones including those shown in this August 2019 Planet Labs satellite mosaic (N at the top). The field is in the Virunga volcanic province in SW Uganda and covers approximately 320 km² with Muhavura, Mgahinga, and Sabinyo along the southern boundary. Several of the scoria cones near the center of this image produced lava flows through the collapse of a flank, resulting in horseshoe-shaped edifices.

Satellite image courtesy of Planet Labs Inc., 2019 (https://www.planet.com/).

Smithsonian Sample Collections Database

There are no samples for Bufumbira Volcanic Field in the Smithsonian's NMNH Department of Mineral Sciences Rock and Ore collection.

External Sites

Copernicus Browser

The Copernicus Browser replaced the Sentinel Hub Playground browser in 2023, to provide access to Earth observation archives from the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem, the main distribution platform for data from the EU Copernicus missions.

WOVOdat
   Single Volcano View
   Temporal Evolution of Unrest
   Side by Side Volcanoes

WOVOdat is a database of volcanic unrest; instrumentally and visually recorded changes in seismicity, ground deformation, gas emission, and other parameters from their normal baselines. It is sponsored by the World Organization of Volcano Observatories (WOVO) and presently hosted at the Earth Observatory of Singapore.

GVMID Data on Volcano Monitoring Infrastructure The Global Volcano Monitoring Infrastructure Database GVMID, is aimed at documenting and improving capabilities of volcano monitoring from the ground and space. GVMID should provide a snapshot and baseline view of the techniques and instrumentation that are in place at various volcanoes, which can be use by volcano observatories as reference to setup new monitoring system or improving networks at a specific volcano. These data will allow identification of what monitoring gaps exist, which can be then targeted by remote sensing infrastructure and future instrument deployments.

IRIS seismic stations/networks

Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) Data Services map showing the location of seismic stations from all available networks (permanent or temporary) within a radius of 0.18° (about 20 km at mid-latitudes) from the given location of Bufumbira Volcanic Field. Users can customize a variety of filters and options in the left panel. Note that if there are no stations are known the map will default to show the entire world with a "No data matched request" error notice.

UNAVCO GPS/GNSS stations

Geodetic Data Services map from UNAVCO showing the location of GPS/GNSS stations from all available networks (permanent or temporary) within a radius of 20 km from the given location of Bufumbira Volcanic Field. Users can customize the data search based on station or network names, location, and time window. Requires Adobe Flash Player.

Large Eruptions of Bufumbira Volcanic Field

Information about large Quaternary eruptions (VEI >= 4) is cataloged in the Large Magnitude Explosive Volcanic Eruptions (LaMEVE) database of the Volcano Global Risk Identification and Analysis Project (VOGRIPA).

EarthChem

EarthChem develops and maintains databases, software, and services that support the preservation, discovery, access and analysis of geochemical data, and facilitate their integration with the broad array of other available earth science parameters. EarthChem is operated by a joint team of disciplinary scientists, data scientists, data managers and information technology developers who are part of the NSF-funded data facility Integrated Earth Data Applications (IEDA). IEDA is a collaborative effort of EarthChem and the Marine Geoscience Data System (MGDS).