Global Volcanism Program | Central Virunga Volcanic Field

Central Virunga Volcanic Field

Google Earth Placemark with Features

Cite Volcano Profile

DR Congo - Rwanda
Albertine Rift Volcanic Province
Cluster | Volcanic field
Pleistocene

Country
Volcanic Region
Landform | Volc Type
Last Known Eruption

1.4142°S
29.525°E
2,763 m
9,065 ft
223072

Latitude
Longitude
Summit
Elevation
Volcano
Number

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

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

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

Basic Data

Volcano Number

Last Known Eruption

Elevation

Latitude
Longitude

223072

Pleistocene

2,763 m / 9,065 ft

1.4142°S
29.525°E

Morphology

Volcano Landform
Cluster

Volcano Types
Volcanic field

Tectonic Setting

Rift zone
Continental crust (> 25 km)

Geological Summary

Unofficially designated the Central Virunga Volcanic Field for this catalog, this volcanic ridge with many small cones extends ~12 km NE-SW along the Dr Congo-Rwanda border area between the Visoke and Sabinyo edifices. As noted by Pitcavage et al. (2021), this is the third of three cinder cone fields in the Virunga area that "have produced primitive alkaline mafic lavas: (1) the Bufumbira volcanic field..., (2) Karisimbi primitive K-basanites (PKBs; Rogers et al., 1992) and (3) cinder cones located between Sabinyo and Visoke (Rogers et al., 1998)."

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

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

Rogers N W, De Mulder M, Hawkesworth C J, 1992. An enriched mantle source for potassic basanites: evidence from Karisimbi volcano, Virunga volcanic province, Rwanda. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 111:543–556. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00320908

Rogers N W, James D, Kelley S P, De Mulder M, 1998. The generation of potassic lavas from the eastern Virunga province, Rwanda. Journal of Petrology, 39: 1223-1247. https://doi.org/10.1093/petroj/39.6.1223

Eruptive History

The Global Volcanism Program is not aware of any Holocene eruptions from Central Virunga Volcanic Field. If this volcano has had large eruptions (VEI >= 4) prior to 12,000 years ago, information might be found on the Central Virunga 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 Central Virunga Volcanic Field.

Photo Gallery

The Global Volcanism Program has no photographs available for Central Virunga Volcanic Field.

Smithsonian Sample Collections Database

There are no samples for Central Virunga 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 Central Virunga 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 Central Virunga Volcanic Field. Users can customize the data search based on station or network names, location, and time window. Requires Adobe Flash Player.

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).