Why Congo's volcano watchers are worried

Record ID: 1605464

  • Title: Why Congo's volcano watchers are worried
  • Date: 11th March 2021
  • Summary: REUTERS, BERLIN, 11.03.2021 FUSSBALLSTAR MAX KRUSE, ENTERTAINER AARON TROSCHKE UND EROCKIT SYSTEMS-GESCHÄFTSFÃœHRER ANDY ZURWEHME FAHREN MIT DEM ELEKTROMOTORRAD EROCKET DIE STRASSE ENTLANG UND PARKEN VOR EASTSIDE GALLERY AN DER SPREE DIE DREI NEHMEN DIE HELME AB KRUSE ZEIHT SICH EINE MASKE AN FOTOTERMIN MIT DEM EROCKET, DIVERSE EINSTELLUNGEN FOTOGAFEN KRUSE NAH EROCKET MI
  • Embargoed: 25th March 2021 18:10
  • Keywords: eruptions the world's largest continually active lava lake volcanic activity volcanic crater
  • Location: GOMA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
  • City: GOMA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
  • Country: Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  • Topics: Africa,Environment
  • Reuters ID: LVA002E3N40UF
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The world's largest continually active lava lake spits and froths, lighting up the dusky sky with a tangerine glow and coughing up a slow series of staccato blasts.
    Standing on the serrated edge of Mount Nyiragongo's crater in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, volcanologist Honore Ciraba peers into the lens of a device measuring changes in the size of the volcano's rim.
    The readings, along with earthquake, temperature and gas data, are crucial to the region's early warning system for the nearby city of Goma, to avoid a repeat of the 2002 eruption when 250 people died and 120,000 were made homeless.
    Analysts like Ciraba say the volcano's crater has refilled with magma, raising the crater floor and the spectre of an even bigger disaster if an earthquake were to cause a fracture in the flank of the volcano.
    But after the World Bank cut funding amid embezzlement allegations, Ciraba and colleagues at the Goma Volcano Observatory (OVG) are struggling to make even basic checks.
    “If we don't do it regularly, we won't know where the crater is expanding. The more magma that goes up into the crater, the more the crater expands. We need to know exactly where that is. Since even if the crater - as you can see - is already 1.03 km, it is possible that it is expanding on the other side; we have to know by how much it's expanding,” said Ciraba, who's devoted his life to trudging up the 3,470m cone to study its activity.
    With the coffers empty, Ciraba's team has been unable to pay for an internet connection to run remote sensors and fuel to transport researchers to the volcano.
    They have to manually download data on memory cards during the handful of occasions they visit the volcano every year, OVG staff said.
    “I am 65-years-old. I have been regularly climbing the volcano for nine years except in 2008 when I had had an accident. But we actually have a passion for climbing this volcano and seeing how it evolves. We are very curious to see whether the Nyiragongo that erupted in 2002 will erupt again. We have to observe it so that we have enough data and can also train those who will come after us. We can show the world that Congolese scientists are also capable of doing what others do.”
    The World Bank declined to renew a four-year, $2 million funding programme.
    The OVG "lacked experience, and there were weaknesses in implementing such a grant," the World Bank said in a statement. It added that it could not corroborate allegations of graft.
    Volcano watchers like Ciraba worry that volcanic activity observed in the last five years mirrors that in the years preceding the 1977 and 2002 eruptions.
    Goma, which was partially buried 19 years ago has expanded towards the volcano - its population is estimated to have tripled to around 1.5 million in the last 20 years - could make an eruption more deadly.
    (Djaffar Al Katanty, Hereward Holland, Okwi Okoh)
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