Mount Nyiragongo hiking safari tours take you to the world’s most powerful active volcano. Mount Nyiragongo hiking safari tours take you to the world’s most powerful active volcano which is among the 8 Virunga Mountains within the Albertine Rift and is inside Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, found in Central Africa. This Volcano is 12 km North of Goma City and Lake Ki
vu on the Western border with Rwanda. Mt Nyiragongo has a major crater which has a lava lake, 2 kilometers wide. This crater has two different cooled lava benches in the crater walls with one being about 3,175m and the other 2,975 m. The depth of the lava lake in the mountain has always been different depending on the different eruptions through the years. Many of the lava lakes are thus created from the edges of the tectonic plates. Before the 1977 eruption, the lava lake was about 3,250 m and after the 2002 eruption, the lava lake was recorded to be 2,600m or about 900m below the rim. However, the level of the lava lake has since increased in level. Due to these historical eruptions, Mt Nyiragongo and Namuragira both found in the Virunga region have all been responsible for 40% of Africa’s historical volcanic eruptions from its lava lakes. Therefore, making them one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world due to the active volcanic activity in both volcanoes, plus others surrounded by them. Nyiragongo, having the world’s largest lava lake carries a record for having the fastest lava flow on the surface of the earth during one of its eruptions where the lava flows from the lava lake occurred in less than an hour. The Nyiragongo Volcano protects many animals including the Bushbuck, different Monkey species, the Three Horned Chameleon, and various bird species.
