Michael Greshko reports that an active volcano in northeastern Tanzania, known to the Maasai as the Mountain of God, has been quietly rumbling, and it is showing signs that an eruption is imminent. Known as Ol Doinyo Lengai, the 7,650-foot-tall peak is the only known active volcano that belches out lava rich with a type of rock called carbonatite. This thin, silvery lava can flow faster than a person can run.
The volcano is some 70 miles from the city of Arusha and is known for its proximity to some of the most important paleoanthropological sites in the world. Ol Doinyo Lengai is less than 70 miles from the famed Olduvai Gorge, a collection of 3.6-million-year-old hominin footprints at a site called Laetoli, and a dance hall of ancient Homo sapiens footprints at a site called Engare Sero. Typically, the volcano activity is confined to its summit. But occasionally, the Mountain of God can roar to life in more dramatic fashion. On September 4, 2007, the volcano belched out a plume of ash that extended at least 11 miles downwind. Lava running down the north and west flanks ignited burn scars that were visible from space.
D. Sarah Stamps, a geophysicist at Virginia Tech, has been partnering with local academics to try and predict the next major eruption. In June 2016, she and her colleagues installed five positioning sensors around Ol Doinyo Lengai in the hopes of tracking how magma underground churn is deforming the volcano surface.
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