Global Volcanism Program

Volcanoes of the World

Volcanoes of Africa and the Red Sea

	Ethiopia and the Red Sea
	Kenya to Congo
	West and North Africa

Regional Volcanology Highlights from Simkin and Siebert, 1994.

Africa is the only region other than the Mediterranean with an historically dated BC eruption (at Mt Cameroon, observed by a passing Carthaginian navigator in the 5th century BC). By the 15th century AD, however, when Portuguese exploration of Africa had begun and Vasco de Gama sailed to India via the Cape of Good Hope, only two more eruptions had been recorded, both from Ethiopia. In the next 3 2/3 centuries, another 20 some eruptions were recorded, but the main historical record of the continent began with the opening of the Suez Canal at the end of 1869, and the heyday of African exploration that followed. Four-fifths of the region's 136 historical eruptions are since 1870.

Most African volcanoes result from hotspots, the rifting in E Africa, or a combination of the two. The East African rift, one of the world's most dramatic extensional structures, has produced the continent's highest and lowest volcanoes, ranging from massive Kilimanjaro to vents in Ethiopia's Danakil Depression that lie below sea level. Two neighboring volcanoes in Zaire's Virunga National Park, Nyamuragira and Nyiragongo, are responsible for nearly two-fifths of Africa's historical eruptions.

Africa has the highest percentage of volcanoes that are undated but known to be Holocene, reflecting the early stage of detailed geologic studies. The continent has the most volcanic centers with pyroclastic cones and fissure vents (as primary features), many of which lie within the East African Rift. It also has many shields, but the most common edifice type, as with 13 other regions, is the stratovolcano (cinder cones are more abundant in many areas, but are commonly grouped as a single volcanic field). The continent, however, has recorded relatively few large (VEI >= 4) eruptions in the Holocene (and three of these four were BC). Africa leads the world in lava lake production, with 9% of its eruptions—all at Nyiragongo and Erta Ale—having exhibited this uncommon characteristic.