AFRICAN VOLCANOES

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 95, 23 April 1935, Page 4

AFRICAN VOLCANOES

SOME STILL ACTIVE

"MOUNTAIN OF GOD"

"There are no active volcanoes in Africa." So said.Mr. Hendrik van Loon, the popular writer on geography who visited South Africa last year. And there are many who share his belief.

'~ The reported eruption of Dunkumbane in Zululand is but one manifestation —and a very weak one—of the plutonic forces which, from time to time, seek an outlet through the crust of this continent. Not only has Africa quiescent volcanoes which have nothing more to offer the traveller than the solemn vista of their water-logged or game-infested craters, but there are also worthy sisters of IJecla and Vesuvius (says a writer in the "Cape Times").

Of all dead volcanoes, Ngorongoro near lake Eyasi, in Tanganyika Territory is probably the most fascinating and the most accessible. The clovercarpeted floor of the crater lies 2000 ft below the edge and provides a sanctuary for tens of thousands of ■ head of game. In the same range as Ngorongoro lies Oldonyo-lengai, the "Mountain of God." This graceful volcano, neariy 10,000 feet high, is one of the finest in the world. Its last eruption occurred in the early part of 1917.

To the layman Mount Kibo of the Kilimanjaro group and Mount Kenya are just mountains, like Ruwenzori. Their choked craters have been transformed into lakes and a fringe of very fine ash crackling under one's feet is the only tangible reminder of a fiery cycle which ended when Mount Kenya was still young. "•,"..

Among the legion of small volcanoes to be found in Kenya Colony, two Have shown unmistakable signs of life in recent years. Mount Longonot, a conspicuous landmark near the NairobiNaivasha main r6ad has a steam vent which was very active in 1893 and is still discharging. Teleki volcano, South of lake Rudolf, was blown to pieces in 1896 and a new shaft appeared several miles further south.

Mount Brukkaros in South-west Africa could well be classed among dead' volcanoes, but as the Hottentots possess some oral tradition of an eruption in the dim past it might be unwise to resume its demise.

The country which has some of the most majestic volcanoes of Africa is the Kivu in the Eastern Congo, and it is well worth recalling that the late Professor J. dv Plessis of Stellenbosch University saw them in his youth when the lack pf roads and information made them appear as remote as Mars. Two volcanoes are alive,

Chamngagongo (10,024 feet), emitting light and smoke and Nyamlagira (11,318 feet) turgid streams of lava which become petrified before reaching the outer rim of the crater.

When the Duke of Mecklenburg, who spent a,few weeks in Cape Town recently, visited the interior of the Chaningagongo crater in 1907 he- saw two circular shafts in the crater floor. Iri" ■ 1921 Alexander Barns saw only one huge pit. .:

Between 1904 and 1905 and again in 1912 serious eruptions occurred on Nyamlagira. ,As testimony to the importance of these eruptions solidified lava streams are piled against the southern and eastern slopes of the mountain. When I saw it last, the vegetation of twenty years had not yet succeded in covering its nakedness. During the 1912 eruption a great lava stream flowed into the lake Kivu, all but closing one of the bays and completely engulfing a large lagoon. The water was brought to the boil and fish ready cooked were floating on the surface. Explosions were heard two hundred miles away. Walikale, 150 miles west, was covered with ash.

Yes, there are active volcanoes in Africa.