Geosphere Journal Entry

Geosphere Journal Entry

Deadly Mudflows Bury Village (May 20, 2010)

Deadly mudflows rumbled down the slopes of the Nyiragongo volcano in the Democratic Republic of Congo this week, burying a village below with mud. At least sixteen people were killed and twenty-seven others are missing, according to Relief Web. Disaster officials say the mudflows were triggered by days of heavy rain and not from a new eruption of the volcano. Thousands of people are still at risk as the rains continued pounding the area this week.

Nyiragongo is one of a pair of volcanoes surrounding the city of Goma. Both Nyiragongo and its twin Nyamuragira have been active this year. Tanzania's Oldoninyo Lengai volcano spewed streams of black lava earlier this year. These volcanoes all formed along the East African Rift Zone. Rising magma steadily pushes slabs of Earth's crust apart along a divergent plate boundary marked by the rift. As the plates spread further apart, the rift valleys get deeper and longer. Eventually, they could fill with ocean water as East Africa splits off from the rest of the continent.