Publications

Smets, B.,  d'Oreye, N. & Kervyn, F. 2017. ‘On the importance of studying the persistent lava lake of Nyiragongo volcano’. 99th Journées Luxembourgeoises de Géodynamique. Book of abstracts.

Conference abstract

As pinpointed by Patrick et al. (2015), persistent lava lakes represent open windows to upper magma plumbing systems, providing direct information on pressure changes. During the last 100 years and probably more, the eruptive activity of Nyiragongo volcano (North Kivu, D.R. Congo) has mostly been characterized by intracrateral eruptions, including the presence of a persistent lava lake in its summit crater from at least 1928 to 1977 and since May 2002. Weeks prior to the two disastrous flank eruptions of Nyiragongo, in 1977 and 2002, the intracrateral activity changed, showing more explosive behaviors and violent lava lake level variations. Consequently, monitoring the current lava lake activity of Nyiragongo is of major importance to detect any pressure change that may lead to another dangerous flank eruption. In this presentation, we focus on the description of the lava lake dynamics at Nyiragongo, highlighting the extent and limits of our current knowledge, and the need for additional initiatives to further study this scarce eruptive phenomenon.