Valentine Marc Nkwame
28 July 2007
Arusha — Members of the Maasai community living around Oldonyo L'engai mountain of Ngorongoro, have refused to vacate the area, despite recent advisory from local authorities, that the active volcano in the vicinity may erupt due to ongoing tremors. The local residents told reporters who visited the location last weekend that some experts have just assured them that the volcanic mountain will not erupt in two centuries time.
The Maasai have also expressed their surprise regarding what they described as recent 'speculations' that the L'engai Volcano had both 'erupted' and 'caused damage.' Speaking from Engaresero village at the foot of Oldonyo L'engai, the residents refuted reports of serious eruption though on the other hand they admitted that the Mountain had been releasing some fumes in the last ten days.
But being the epicenter for the ongoing series of earthquakes, the area around the L'engai has been suffering from constant tremors and rumblings, however as far as the local residents are concerned, it is a 'normal' occurrence and doesn't necessarily spell danger.
Due to the ongoing series of earth quakes rumbling mostly across Arusha and Manyara regions, experts had earlier on warned of the possibility that the legendary Oldonyo L'engai, an active volcanic land feature of Ngorongoro was likely to erupt again.
The local authorities on the other hand took initial precautions by ordering the residents to vacate the area. Christopher Ndugai, the chairman for Engaresero village, located at the foot of the L'engai admitted to have received orders from the District Commissioner to move the residents away.
"The directive was that, no human being or animals should be found within 50 kilometres radius and as it happens, the Engaresero village, with a population of 3400 residents living in 1400 households, is situated some 15 kilometers from the mountai,." explained Ndugai.
Yonah Kokka a resident of Engaresero said some geological experts from Germany had visited the area last week and after a prolonged survey, declared that, there was 'no possibility for the volcano to erupt.' "Not in 200 years anyway!"
"That is why we are not just about to leave our residency, besides where exactly do they expect us to go?" Asked Kokka, who together with other villagers, have refuted rumors of erupting volcano.
The Ngorongoro District Commissioner, Jovita Kasumba had stated last week that following the recent series of tremors that have been rocking the locality, signs were clear that, sooner or later, the 2878 meters high Oldonyo L'engai would be spewing hot lava.
The current low water level of Lake Natron, which shares the ecological balance with the L'engai with the lake serving as the 'cooling radiator' for the boiling mountain lava, according to observers, could also contribute to L'engai's new eruptions.
'Oldonyo L'engai' a Maasai term meaning 'Mountain of God!' had been named so by the locals, because of the mountain's regular rumblings. The Maasai in the locality believe the rumbling noises are the 'gods speaking.' In fact even the land feature serves as a 'shrine' for the natives who normally worship there.
Dating back to the early 1910s, the barren-brown, single-peaked Oldonyo L'engai has been erupting into red-hot rivers of scorching lava and the last time a serious eruption took place was in March last year, resulting into a mass exodus of hundreds of people who were fleeing the catastrophe.
As it happens, the entire area surrounding both the 'Mountain of God' and the adjacent Lake Natron have since last week, been experiencing a number gigantic earth movements resulting into rocks catapulting into the air. Oldonyo L'engai is the only volcano in the world that erupts Natro-carbonatite, a highly fluid lava, containing almost no silicon
About 15 tremors have so far rocked the area and out of those 13 were minor quakes, while the two that struck on July 15 were so big, such that some of the ridges cris-crossing the vast landscape cracked and threw out huge rocks some of which hit and damaged a number of residential houses in the vicinity.
The Monduli District Commissioner Lt. Col. (Rtd) Isah Machibya on the other hand revealed that similar incidents have been reported in Engaruka parts of Monduli where the surrounding hills have been sending huge rocks down due to the quakes.
He however refuted reports that, some school buildings in Engaruka had collapsed due to volcano. According to DC. Machibya, only one house a teachers' quarters suffered deep cracks but it was due to tremors, not volcano.
The Engaruka Ward counselor, Pashet Sengeruan said two girls of Orkum village were hit by rocks while drawing water from a deep valley. The tremors caused the rock above to fall below where the children were. However, they both suffered minor injuries. This is also contrary to some reports that the children had been scalded by volcanic lava.
The legendary Oldonyo L'engai, the land feature believed to be 'Mountain of God' by locals, unleashed its latest fury in March 2006 through a major volcanic eruption, which became the first ferocious to be recorded since 1966. Now this history is set to repeat itself in 2007 with the ongoing series of earthquakes currently rocking the area.
Acting from past experiences and warning by some local geological experts, the local authorities have hence ordered the residents of villages around Oldonyo L'engai to vacate the area, lest the 'Mountain of God' starts scorching the vicinity with hot lava again.
Oldonyo L'engai usually erupts in three styles, one is gushing out hot rivers of red lava with yellowish flames and scalding fumes, the second is by jetting out some dark, oily fluid which are normally just as scorching hot and the third is by blowing out thick clouds of ashes, accompanied by huge rocks that fly greater heights before landing at much further distances from the mountain bed.
Hundreds of villagers, who live around Oldonyo L'engai, had to flee from their residential areas, following the massive eruption of volcano, an occurrence that is believed to be one of the fiercest, in history and surpasses even the previous record of 1966.
Villages surrounding the 'Mountain of god' include; Nayobi, Magadini, Engaruka, Malambo, Ngaresero, Gelai-bomba and Kitumbeine, have now no choice but to move away from the 'Mountain of God' before the L'engai roars again spitting out red-hot rivers of molten rock and spewing scalding fumes and 'iron melting' lava all over the locality as it did last year.
Although the previous volcano claimed no human life, it destroyed trees, bushes, crops and other forms of vegetation as the burning hot lava gushed through the area on the mountain slopes and the later dried up Magma measured up to a radius of three kilometers long.
But a statement by John Mungai the weather expert at the EAC secretariat allays eruption fears. The statement says while earthquake swarm is indeed situated close to the Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano, an active volcano in the Gregory Rift of the East African rift system, eruption may not necessarily occur.
"Although volcanic eruptions are often preceded and accompanied by earthquake swarms, most earthquake swarms are not associated with volcanic eruptions."
"Information recorded at the U. S. Geological Survey/National Earthquake Information Center is not sufficient to determine if the current Tanzania swarm activity reflects a geologic process that might lead to a change in the eruptive behavior of Ol Doinyo Lengai." He points out.
The history of Oldonyo L'engai eruptions officially started to be documented in 1917 when a major explosive eruption took place from January to about June that year. Ash was deposited as much as 25 to 30 miles away, and killed the formerly luxuriant vegetation on the lower slopes of the mountain. The flat lava platform was replaced by a deep summit crater. Other eruptions could have occurred for several months in 1926.
Another eruption was reported in 1940 , when at times a column of smoke, lit at night by glowing internal fires, rose as high again as the mountain to nearly 20,000 feet and spread a film of ash far and wide over the highlands and north Serengeti. In the 1940 eruption the ash was so heavy on the Salei plains, and the mountains to the west, that the grazing became inedible.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2007 Arusha Times. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
