A WARNING: THERE ARE SIGNIFICANT RISKS FOR TRAVELLERS AROUND OLDOINYO LENGAI AND ABOVE ALL FOR ANYONE THINKING OF TRYING TO CLIMB THE VOLCANO

Oldoinyo Lengai Volcano: January - March, 2008

A team of Tanzanian, US, and French scientists visited the region around the volcano in January 2008, and interviewed local porters who routinely climb Oldoinyo Lengai with tourists.  Our observations and photos indicate continuing eruptive activity, and a growing threat to the region, as outlined below.

Almost daily eruptions from the central caldera have filled the crater, and produced a steep lapilli-ash cone around the crater rim.  A film clip of the crater made by a Medecins Sans Frontieres pilot confirms that the loose lapilli is near collapse.   These conditions mean that there are very high risks of one or more of the following: 1) a debris flow or lahar (mix of hot ash, water/mud) down the existing channels around the volcano; 2) burns from hot lapilli and ash; and 3) catastropic collapse of the steep lapilli cones around the crater. The risks increase with increasing rainfall during the March-May rains. 

We also urge extreme caution to anyone driving in the river channels on the eastern and northern slopes of Lengai between Engaruka and Ngare Sero.  There are scars of immense debris flows on the flanks of Kerimasi, and smaller scars on Oldoinyo Lengai. These scars attest to catastrophic flows in the past, some of which carried rock fragments up to 50 cm in diameter for distances extending up to 10 km from Oldoinyo Lengai. Even smaller debris flows could do great damage to vehicles and people moving along the eastern and northern slopes of the volcano.