To Make a Mountain (or two)

Kilimanjaro is not only the tallest mountain in Africa, it is also one of the tallest freestanding mountains in the world. What many people do not know is that it is a dormant volcano.

It began about 750000 years ago when molten lava burst through the Great Rift Valley (a large fault in East Africa), pushing the Earth's Crust upwards, creating the oldest of the 3 volcanos forming Kilimanjaro. Over the hundreds of thousands of years since then, huge eruptions have brought Kilimanjaro to it's current height around Kibo's crater rim to apporx 5895m (Uhuru Peak). The most recent volcanic activity of note was about 200 years ago which left the 'Ash Pit' in Reusch Crater.

Mount Meru, the first of our two planned summits, is an active volcano about 70km west of Kilimanjaro. In an eruption similar to that of Mount St Helens in 1980, Meru lost much of it's bulk in a volcanic blast about 8000 years ago, leaving huge cliffs 1500m above the crater floor. That is about as high as the Grand Canyon is deep.

Below is a Landsat/Radar image from Nasa showing the two mountains, and other volcanos in the area as well. Height is exagerated two times. Click for a larger image.

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