What caused Mount Nyiragongo to erupt?
What caused Mount Nyiragongo to erupt? Although there are several factors triggering a Mount Nyiragongo eruption, there majorly 3 factors which cause this volcanic activity to take place; that is to say the buoyancy of the magma, the pressure from the exsolved gases in the magma and the injection of a new batch of magma into an already filled magma chamber.
Mount Nyiragongo is unique is among the few volcanoes in the world that hosts a near-persistent lava lake, with large volumes of molten lava contained within its volcanic crater. Nyiragongo volcano is in a chain of volcanoes that is part of the GEO GSNL Virunga supersite, an international partnership that promotes open access to geophysical satellite data and analysis to support disaster risk reduction.
Very many travelers ask what caused mount Nyiragongo to erupt in May 2021 and all the past years, however below is a brief description of the process;
As a result of melting the underneath rock, its mass remains the same while its volume increases which produce a melt that is less dense than the surrounding rock. This lighter magma then rises toward the surface by virtue of its buoyancy. If the density of the magma between the zone of its generation and the surface is less than that of the surrounding and overlying rocks, the magma reaches the surface and erupts.
Magmas of a mixture of andesitic and rhyolitic together with dissolved volatiles such as water, sulfur dioxide, and carbon dioxide. Research shows that the amount of dissolved gas in magma (its solubility) at atmospheric pressure is zero, however, rises with increasing pressure.
For example, in an andesitic magma saturated with water and six kilometers below the surface, about 5 percent of its weight is dissolved water. As this magma moves toward the surface, the solubility of the water in the magma decreases, and so the excess water separates from the magma in the form of bubbles. As the magma moves closer to the surface, more and more water exsolves from the magma, thereby increasing the gas/magma ratio in the conduit. When the volume of bubbles reaches about 75 percent, the magma disintegrates into pyroclasts (partially molten and solid fragments) and erupts explosively.
Another theory that may have caused Mount Nyiragongo to erupt is an injection of new magma into a chamber that is already filled with magma of similar or different compositions. This injection forces some of the magma in the chamber to move up in the conduit and erupt at the surface.
Mount Nyiragongo volcano in Virunga national park of the Democratic Republic of Congo started to erupt in the morning of Saturday, May 22, 2021, with fissures in the southern side of the mountain sending lava pouring into nearby towns. At least 31 people as of May 26 lost their lives in the recent Nyiragongo volcano eruption according to media reports, and official reports from the Ministry of Communications of DR Congo while a total number of 232,433 people evacuated from the region to secure and safe areas of Gisenyi in Rwanda. This is the first major eruption of Mt. Nyiragongo ever since 2002, which resulted in the deaths of 245 people, and approximately 120,000 people were left homeless.
