Uganda expects earthquakes
Mar 10, 2003
ON February 27, 2003 scientists in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), detected earthquakes that made them suspect that the nearby Mt. Nyamuragira was about to erupt - within a few weeks or days.
By Charles Wendo
ON February 27, 2003 scientists in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), detected earthquakes that made them suspect that the nearby Mt. Nyamuragira was about to erupt - within a few weeks or days. On the same day and the following day, a monitoring station at Kilembe in western Uganda recorded some earthquakes.
Mt. Nyamuragira is near Mt. Nyiragongo that erupted last year. The two are connected to the Bufumbira Mountains of south-western Uganda. They are so close to Uganda and Rwanda that Congolese people who fled last year’s volcanic eruption walked to the borders.
The commissioner for geology, Joshua Tuhumirwe, says this proximity enables earthquakes that are associated with a volcano around Goma, to reach Uganda.
“When there was an eruption on Nyiragongo in 2002 we had small earthquakes for more than one week,†says Tuhumirwe.
A volcanic eruption occurs when the restless magma (molten rock) inside the earth squeezes its way through the earth’s weak points. As the red hot magma forces its way to the surface, it causes small earthquakes.
Dr. Ezra Twesigomwe, an earthquake expert at the Faculty of Science, Makerere University, says such earthquakes are usually small, and occur in series. They are referred to as volcanic earthquakes. Whereas such earthquakes act as alarm bells, they are not always followed by volcanic eruptions.
“You can get a lot of earthquake activity but no volcanic eruption. However, you are not likely to get an eruption without an earthquake,†says Twesigomwe.
On D-day the mountain top explodes and fires into the air, a turbulent cloud of dust, ash and red-hot magma that eventually solidifies into pieces of rock and fall back to earth. Some of this turbulent mixture jets down the mountain slopes, burning anything it comes across.
The last time Mt. Nyamuragira erupted was in 2001. In January 2002, the nearby Mt. Nyiragongo erupted, killing 45 people and displacing more than 350,000 others.
But Tuhumirwe says the Bufumbira Mountains are not likely to erupt again. They last erupted more than 1.5 million years ago. On the contrary, the Congolese mountains have erupted 16 times in 100 years.
“I know that our people are safe,†says Tuhumirwe.
Twesigomwe says earthquakes that accompany volcanic eruptions should not cause alarm because they are generally small. The bigger worry, he adds, would be the volcanic eruption itself, but the distance from Mt. Nyamuragira cannot allow the magma to flow all the way to Uganda.
ON February 27, 2003 scientists in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), detected earthquakes that made them suspect that the nearby Mt. Nyamuragira was about to erupt - within a few weeks or days. On the same day and the following day, a monitoring station at Kilembe in western Uganda recorded some earthquakes.
Mt. Nyamuragira is near Mt. Nyiragongo that erupted last year. The two are connected to the Bufumbira Mountains of south-western Uganda. They are so close to Uganda and Rwanda that Congolese people who fled last year’s volcanic eruption walked to the borders.
The commissioner for geology, Joshua Tuhumirwe, says this proximity enables earthquakes that are associated with a volcano around Goma, to reach Uganda.
“When there was an eruption on Nyiragongo in 2002 we had small earthquakes for more than one week,†says Tuhumirwe.
A volcanic eruption occurs when the restless magma (molten rock) inside the earth squeezes its way through the earth’s weak points. As the red hot magma forces its way to the surface, it causes small earthquakes.
Dr. Ezra Twesigomwe, an earthquake expert at the Faculty of Science, Makerere University, says such earthquakes are usually small, and occur in series. They are referred to as volcanic earthquakes. Whereas such earthquakes act as alarm bells, they are not always followed by volcanic eruptions.
“You can get a lot of earthquake activity but no volcanic eruption. However, you are not likely to get an eruption without an earthquake,†says Twesigomwe.
On D-day the mountain top explodes and fires into the air, a turbulent cloud of dust, ash and red-hot magma that eventually solidifies into pieces of rock and fall back to earth. Some of this turbulent mixture jets down the mountain slopes, burning anything it comes across.
The last time Mt. Nyamuragira erupted was in 2001. In January 2002, the nearby Mt. Nyiragongo erupted, killing 45 people and displacing more than 350,000 others.
But Tuhumirwe says the Bufumbira Mountains are not likely to erupt again. They last erupted more than 1.5 million years ago. On the contrary, the Congolese mountains have erupted 16 times in 100 years.
“I know that our people are safe,†says Tuhumirwe.
Twesigomwe says earthquakes that accompany volcanic eruptions should not cause alarm because they are generally small. The bigger worry, he adds, would be the volcanic eruption itself, but the distance from Mt. Nyamuragira cannot allow the magma to flow all the way to Uganda.