| Abstract: | On the 21st of June, 1982, Mt. Niragongo ended a period of dormancy that had begun on January 11, 1977, and fresh lava began to flow into the 800-m-deep crater. On October 3, a huge lava lake, wider and deeper than any previously observed (500 m across and close to 400 m deep) rose to within 440 m of the crater rim. The observed activity consisted of a large, central upwelling fountain of very fluid lava from which concentric lava waves expanded radially; numerous small, relatively viscous lava flows creeped over the surrounding thin solidified crust, that covered about 95% of the lake area. These observed features seem to characterize the upper part of a large convective system. The persistence of such an extraordinarily large steady-state lava lake may be due to the equally exceptional fluidity of the magma rising at the intersection of four different tectonic trends of fractures in the subvolcanic basement. |
