Volcano is a very beautiful, but at the same time dangerous and unpredictable natural phenomenon. To see his eruption means to get an unforgettable experience, but at this time you have to be at a great distance from the center of events, because it covers huge areas with ash, lava and volcanic bombs. Such natural phenomena exist on all continents. And today we’ll talk about what is the largest volcano in Africa, what it is.
The highest, but no longer active volcano here is Kilimanjaro. Its height is approximately 5895 meters. In Swahili, the name means "white mountain." It is the largest volcano in Africa in Tanzania, just 300 km south of the equator. Kilimanjaro consists of 3 separate cones, the highest peak is Kibo (5895 meters). The second peak is Mawenzi (5149 m), the third is Shira (3962 m). At the top of Kibo there is a crater with a diameter of about 3 km and a depth of 800 m.
The highest volcano in Africa, whose name you already know, began to form several million years ago, when the lava exceeded the fault zone. Mawenzi and Shira are already extinct peaks, but Kibo can get out of a state of rest at any moment and erupt with renewed vigor. The last significant eruption was 360,000 years ago, and data on the activity of the volcano were recorded in the 19th century.
The pioneer of Kilimanjaro was Johannes Rebman. This happened in 1848, although, of course, the mention of this volcano was many years before the official opening date. Austrian Ludwig Purcell and German Hans Meyer were the first to climb Kilimanjaro's highest peak on October 6, 1889.
The largest volcano in Africa has at its peak a lot of snow, which appeared there many years ago after the ice age, and now its amount is gradually reduced. Scientists believe that soon the snow will disappear there altogether.
Kilimanjaro is a beautiful mountain, climbing which is very popular among tourists, because it allows you to immediately feel 3 climatic zones. At the very beginning (the first 3 km) are the rainforest, mountain rivers, streams and waterfalls. Residents in the area successfully grow bananas, coffee, corn. In the middle of the ascent is the desert, and at the very top - snow. The features of Kilimanjaro are the lack of a bamboo zone and great biodiversity with a fairly low endemicity of some species.
The largest volcano in Africa is an ideal place for tourists. There are even specially designed routes here, some of them are intended exclusively for ascent, others for descent. However, it is not as simple as it might seem. Before climbing, people must be prepared, because at a considerable height it is easy to experience a lack of oxygen, headache and hypothermia. Pulmonary or cerebral edema may occur. According to some reports, more people died on Kilimanjaro than on Everest.
There are active volcanoes in Africa, and one of the largest such is Cameroon, whose height is more than 4 km. He is quite active, so he has good chances to quickly build a large height.