DCR: SMOKE AND ASH RISING FROM THE VOLCANO NEAR GOMA RAISE FEAR IT COULD ERRUPT AGAIN

Record ID: 647352

  • Title: DCR: SMOKE AND ASH RISING FROM THE VOLCANO NEAR GOMA RAISE FEAR IT COULD ERRUPT AGAIN
  • Date: 17th January 2002
  • Summary: (U5) GOMA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (JULY 27, 2002) (REUTERS -- ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE VIEW MOUNT NYIRAGONGO SPEWING SMOKE AND ASH INTO THE AIR 0.05 2. MOUNTAIN SHROUDED IN SMOKE AND ASH 0.11 3. UNITED NATIONS HELICOPTER FLYING TOWARDS MOUNTAIN 0.17 4. PAN FROM MOUNTAIN TO ROAD SHOWING OLD LAVA FLOW FROM JANUARY 0.24 5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) DARIO TEDESCO, UNITED NATIONS VOLCANOLOGIST, SAYING: "Nyiragongo is the main concern for the city of Goma, and the situation is probably a little better than what we were suspecting. There is a big plume, but inside the crater there is not a real lava lake, there is another very small crater with some small lava lake inside. Now the question is why there is such a huge degasing which is not proportional to the volume of lava inside the crater. So the idea is probably that there is still some lava some magma inside the crater which could well intrude through the fractures of the January 17 eruption." 1.08 6. MORE OF MOUNT NYIRAGONGO SPEWING SMOKE AND ASH 1.18 7. (SOUNDBITE) (English) DARIO TEDESCO, UNITED NATIONS VOLCANOLOGIST SAYING: "On the other side near the volcano is a spectacular eruption with between 100 and 200 metres lava flow from lava fountains. It is not a threat to the city, neither Goma nor Sake, there is no problem for people, neither for some villages around." 1.40 8. GV CHILDREN LOOKING AT PLUME OF SMOKE FROM NYIRAGONGO 1.43 9. MORE OF MOUNT NYIRAGONGO 1.48 10. TGV TEMPORARY SHELTERS FOR PEOPLE DISPLACED BY MOUNT NYIRAGONGO JANUARY 17 ERUPTION 1.55 11. VARIOUS OF DISPLACED PEOPLE (6 SHOTS) 2.22 12. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE REBUILDING THEIR BUSINESSES AND HOMES (4 SHOTS) 2.41 (U5)GOMA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (FILE - JANUARY 17, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 13. VARIOUS OF LAVA FLOWING TOWARDS GOMA FROM MOUNT NYIRAGONGO (4 SHOTS) 2.51 14. VARIOUS OF DISPLACED PEOPLE LEAVING WITH BELONGINGS (5 SHOTS) 3.04 15. AERIALS SHOTS OVER MOUNT NYIRAGONGO AND GOMA TOWN (2 SHOTS) 3.13 16. LAVA FLOWING INTO LAKE KIVU (2 SHOTS) 3.16 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 1st February 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: GOMA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
  • City:
  • Country: Congo, Democratic Republic of
  • Reuters ID: LVACLKUE52F17SXNWIC0VSZFQ2J2
  • Story Text: A huge plume of ash rose from a volcano in eastern
    Congo on Saturday (July 27), raising fears it could again spew
    lava over a Congolese town it devastated six months ago.

    Experts said a slowly rising wall of dust and ash three
    kilometres (two miles) high towered above Mount Nyiragongo
    less than 48 hours after another volcano nearby, Nyamuragira,
    began erupting spectacularly but harmlessly over uninhabited
    forest.



    Six months after lava spewing from Mount Nyiragongo
    destroyed half of the Congolese town of Goma, the sky above
    the volcano is again filled with smoke and ash. Volcanologists
    have observed rapidly rising levels of molten rock in the
    volcano's crater over the last two weeks.

    Overcast weather and the cloud of dust, ash, and smoke
    are expected to hamper visibility during helicopter flights
    over Nyiragongo by volcanologists.

    This will make it even harder to observe and assess the
    notoriously unpredictable mountain. Experts say the danger is
    that increasing pressure from the rising lava will force a
    breach in the flanks of the mountain, not that the lava will
    overflow the rim of the 1.2-km wide crater.

    "Nyiragongo is the main concern for the city of Goma,
    and the situation is probably a little better than what we
    were suspecting. There is a big plume, but inside the crater
    there is not a real lava lake, there is another very small
    crater with some small lava lake inside.

    Now the question is why there is such a huge degasing
    which is not proportional to the volume of lava inside the
    crater. So the idea is probably that there is still some lava
    some magma inside the crater which could well intrude through
    the fractures of the January 17 eruption", said United
    Nations volcanologist Dario Tedesco.

    "On the other side near the volcano is a spectacular
    eruption with between 100 and 200 metres lava flow from lava
    fountains. It is not a threat to the city, neither Goma nor
    Sake, there is no problem for people, neither for some
    villages around", Tedesco added.

    Goma's residents are still struggling to rebuild their
    homes and businesses after Nyiragongo's eruption in January
    razed much of their hometown. It was Africa's most destructive
    volcanic eruption for 25 years. Tens of thousands were forced
    to flee into neighbouring Rwanda, adding to the woes of a
    region beset by civil war and the aftermath of the Rwandan
    genocide in 1994.

    In 1977, scores of people were killed when a sea of lava
    burst through fissures in Nyiragongo's flanks at 60 kilometres
    an hour, which experts said was the fastest lave flow on
    record.

    Aid workers have prepared emergency items such as
    makeshift shelters just in case Nyiragongo erupts. Goma's
    500,000 residents, however, have remained in the town.

    The mountains lie in territory controlled by the
    Rwandan-backed rebels of the Congolese Rally for Democracy
    (RCD), who have been at war for four years with the government
    of the Democratic Republic of Congo in Kinshasa.




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