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Emuruangogolak Volcano | John Seach
Kenya
1.50 N, 36.33 E
summit elevation 1328 m
Shield volcano
Emuruangogolak volcano is located 100 km south of Lake Turkana, at the narrowest part of the Baringo-Suguta trough. The rift valley at this latitude is about 125 km, wide.
The volcano covers an area of about 600 sq km and rises to over 700 m above
the rift floor. It has maximum E-W and N-S dimensions of 20 and 32 km respectively.
Volcanic activity commenced about one million years ago. Hot ground and fumaroles are located along fissures within the caldera and lower NW flanks. Emuruangogolak has experienced two episodes of summit collapse which produced shallow nested calderas.
Parasitic pyroclastic cones situated on the upper western flanks of Emuruangogolak and represent Pre-caldera I Pyroclastic Activity.
The dimensions of the first caldera measure 9 × 7.5 km, slightly elongated along a north-west/south-east orientation. The caldera I wall is preserved as a 5 km section running south from Enambaba cone. On the eastern side of the volcano, the caldera I fault is difficult to identify. To the north caldera I rim is buried beneath eruption products from Enambaba and Nakot.
The second caldera measures 3.5 × 4.5 km and like the first, is elongated along
a north-west/south-east direction. The maximum height of the caldera II wall of 75 m occurs on the south side. Basalt lava was erupted from the summit area soon after the second caldera collapse.
The most recent lava flow on Emuruangogolak is a trachyte block lava, erupted
from a small cone lying south of Kapusikeju. Turkana people relate stories about earth tremors and volcanic activity at the volcano.
Further reading
Weaver, S.D., 1977. The Quaternary caldera volcano Emuruangogolak, Kenya Rift, and the petrology of a bimodal ferrobasalt-pantelleritic trachyte association. Bulletin Volcanologique, 40(4), pp.209-230.
Emuruangogolak Volcano Eruptions
1910, 1700, 1300, 1230, 1160, 1115, 6550 BC, 8050 BC