My Earth Toy

Mount Nyiragongo

니라공고산

Mount Nyiragongo
Photo: MONUSCO / Neil Wetmore, CC BY-SA 2.0 · source

Mount Nyiragongo is an active volcano 3,470 metres high in the Virunga Mountains of central Africa. It stands inside Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, about 12 kilometres north of the city of Goma and Lake Kivu, close to the border with Rwanda. Its main crater is about 2 kilometres wide and usually holds a lake of bubbling, glowing lava.

See it on the 3D globe →

At a glance

Country
Congo - Kinshasa
Location
Virunga National Park, DR Congo
Height
3,470 m
Type
Volcano

Quick answers

Where is Mount Nyiragongo?

Mount Nyiragongo is in Virunga National Park, DR Congo, Congo - Kinshasa.

An active volcano whose crater holds one of the largest lava lakes on Earth.

Nyiragongo's lava lake has at times been the largest known on Earth. The volcano is also one of the most dangerous, because its lava is unusually runny and can rush downhill very fast, and because the big city of Goma lies only about 12 kilometres away. Together with its neighbour Nyamuragira, it is responsible for about 40 percent of Africa's recorded volcanic eruptions.

The lava lake

Most volcanoes only show lava when they erupt, but Nyiragongo often keeps a pool of molten rock in its crater for years at a time. Scientists suspected the lake was there for a long time and confirmed it in 1948. Its level rises and falls. Before 1977 the lava stood about 600 metres deep. After the 2002 eruption it dropped to around 900 metres below the rim, then slowly rose again. Ledges of cooled lava on the crater walls mark where the lake once stood.

Why its lava is so fast

Nyiragongo's lava contains very little silica, the ingredient that makes most lava thick and sticky. That makes it flow almost like water. In January 1977 the crater walls cracked and the whole lava lake drained in less than an hour. The lava raced down the slopes at up to 60 kilometres an hour, the fastest lava flow ever recorded, and destroyed several villages. Because of this danger, in 1991 Nyiragongo was named a Decade Volcano, a volcano chosen for special study.

Eruptions and Goma

On 17 January 2002 a long crack opened on the volcano's southern side, and streams of lava flowed straight through Goma and into Lake Kivu. About 400,000 people were evacuated across the border to Rwanda, lava covered part of the airport runway, and around 120,000 people lost their homes. In May 2021 the volcano erupted again and lava came close to the city. Scientists at the Goma Volcano Observatory now watch Nyiragongo around the clock with earthquake and temperature sensors.

Fun facts

  • In 2002 its lava flows reached the nearby city of Goma.
  • Nyiragongo's lava has flowed at up to 60 kilometres an hour, faster than any other lava flow ever measured.
  • In 1977 its entire lava lake drained away in less than an hour.
  • The volcano has erupted at least 34 times since 1882.
  • Virunga National Park, where Nyiragongo stands, is Africa's oldest national park.

On the globe

The model shows the volcano in DR Congo with a lava lake in its crater. Zoom in and look down into the crater to find the lava.

Nearby on the globe

Sources

Updated: 2026-10-13