A whopping 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) wide and usually containing a lava lake, Nyiragongo Volcano is one of Africa’s most active volcanoes.It has erupted at least 34 times since 1882.It is located inside Virunga National Park, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, about 20 km (12 mi) north of the town of Goma and Lake Kivu and just west of the border with Rwanda. The main crater is about two kilometres (1 mi) wide and usually contains a lava lake. The crater presently has two distinct cooled lava benches within the crater walls – one at about 3,175 m (10,417 ft) and a lower one at about 2,975 m (9,760 ft). Nyiragongo’s lava lake has at times been the most voluminous known lava lake in recent history. The depth of the lava lake varies considerably. A maximum elevation of the lava lake was recorded at about 3,250 m (10,660 ft) prior to the January 1977 eruption – a lake depth of about 600 m (2,000 ft).The volcano partly overlaps with two older volcanoes, Baratu and Shaheru, and is also surrounded by hundreds of small volcanic cinder cones from flank eruptions.
Nyiragongo’s cone consists of pyroclastics and lava flows.In the last few years, Virunga, Africa’s oldest national park, began offering treks to Nyiragongo’s lava lake.
