Thousands Fled as Lava Poured Into Villages in Congo

The Guardian reports: At least 15 people died when torrents of lava poured into villages after dark in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo destroying more than 500 homes, officials and survivors said Sunday.

The eruption of Mount Nyiragongo on Saturday night sent about 5,000 people fleeing from the city of Goma across the nearby border into Rwanda, while another 25,000 others sought refuge to the north-west in Sake, the UN children's agency said Sunday... Goma ultimately was largely spared the mass destruction it suffered the last time the volcano erupted back in 2002. Hundreds died then and more than 100,000 people were left homeless. But in outlying villages closer to the volcano, Sunday was marked by grief and uncertainty...

The air remained thick with smoke because of how many homes had caught fire from the lava... Residents said there was little warning before the eruption. Smoke rose from smouldering heaps of lava in the Buhene area near Goma on Sunday... Witnesses said lava had engulfed one highway connecting Goma with the city of Beni.

However, the airport appeared to be spared the same fate as 2002 when lava flowed on to the runways.

Re:

[lsllll]

I could argue that the term "nerd" is very inclusive of people outside the computer engineering physics chemistry (had to replace slashes because SD thought I was posting ASCII art) domain. As a matter of fact, the definition according to Webster [merriam-webster.com] describes one who is a slave to intellectually, which would encompass everyone from the geologists and meteorologists involved in the eruption to the people who plan logistics of escaping from flowing lava. So you can take that "news that matters for nerds" and s

Re:

[DesertNomad]

...describes one who is a slave to intellectually...

Did you perchance mean "intellectuality"?

Is that like a pedant?

Re:

[Applehu Akbar]

For posting this news that matters for nerds.

Volcanoes are greatly nerdly. "Lava pouring into villages" happens in HI from time to time, but never as a surprise.

Re:

[ShanghaiBill]

Volcanoes are greatly nerdly.

Indeed. Nerdism isn't just about computers. It can be a compulsive focus on any technical or scientific topic, including geology.

"Lava pouring into villages" happens in HI from time to time, but never as a surprise.

Hawaiian volcanoes are shield volcanoes. They produce fast-flowing mafic lava that cools to form basalt.

The volcano in the Congo is a strato-volcano, with more viscous and slower-flowing felsic lava. So it is even more surprising that people were caught off guard.

Re:

[ShanghaiBill]

The volcano in the Congo is a strato-volcano, with more viscous and slower-flowing felsic lava.

Self-correction: According to Wikipeida, despite being a stratovolcano, Nyamuragira emits fast-moving low-silicate mafic lava.

Mount Nyiragongo [wikipedia.org]

Re:

[DesertNomad]

Whether felsic or mafic, lava does not have the capacity to sneak up on anyone. The sound of trees crashing down or hundreds of animals hoofing it out of there might be a giveaway.

Tephra or lahars, those could do a better job, but then one would likely know that that could happen at any moment.

Re:

[RockDoctor]

It's not a carbonatite [wikipedia.org] magma, but it's quite a long way down that branch of petrology. Deep sourced and fast-ascending. It just doesn't map well onto the general "basic-to-acid" classification of your run-of-the-mill silicate magmas.

Re:Thanks.

[Lije Baley]

Volcanos are cool, for geology nerds. Also, Slashdot changed a long time ago to "News for ad views, stuff that makes money".

Re:

[DesertNomad]

It's our job to bring it back to its core nerd appeal.

Re:Thanks.

[phantomfive]

Volcanoes are pretty cool. [xkcd.com] Nerds like to hear about them. [xkcd.com]

Clearly you don't believe what you wrote.

[thegarbz]

For posting this news that matters for nerds.

Given how Slashdot has disabled anonymous posting without a login, it means you have a login. So here you are, complaining about something being posted on Slashdot as not news for nerds... but while doing so you felt the need to not associate your account name with your opinion. My analysis:

You very well know that there are other nerds out there who are actually interested in volcanoes and you were so afraid of being down-modded that you ticked "post Anonymously". All of this leads me to one question: If yo

Re:

[RockDoctor]

Not many nerds are geologists, but quite a few (30-odd %?) geologists are nerds. Maybe not your sort of spineless coward of a nerd, but nerds quite definitely.

Lava+Elephant=

[GameboyRMH]

A cool pic from a previous eruption there: https://i.imgur.com/advfW8z.jp... [imgur.com]

Re:

[phantomfive]

There are some [pinimg.com] cool pictures of the volcano [africa-expeditions.com].

They build homes right next to an active volcano

[devslash0]

and then wonder why they have lava in the living room.

(George Carlin, Saving the Planet)

Re:

[arglebargle_xiv]

Actually all they wanted was the lava lamp for the living room, but they made the mistake of ordering the "You may also be interested in..." on Amazon instead.

Re:

[DrXym]

Take a look at Vesuvius and the urban sprawl under it. Some people are super keen to become a visitor attraction in a few thousand years.

Re:

[RockDoctor]

Take a look at Vesuvius and the urban sprawl under it.

Arguably (arguably!) it's the most dangerous volcano/ city combination around. While the lahar threat to - I forget the name, Washington USA city down-river from Mt Rainier - has nasty potential too, not all of the city is in the debris channels. And there are a few other nasties in various parts of Indonesia. But Naples city is sandwiched between the explosive Vesuvius and the even more explosive Campi Flegrei [wikipedia.org] volcano. The whole city is built on pyrocla

Soil fertility

[clawsoon]

Volcanic soils can be quite fertile, so there's a risk-reward tradeoff. You get 20 or 30 or 100 years of great farming, with 1 year of catastrophe randomly mixed in there.

Re:

[sabbede]

Not just that, but one that erupted and killed hundreds of people and wiped out thousands of homes just 19 years ago!

Mount Nyiragongo

[nochbesser]

Mount Nyiragongo is a stratovolcano, and it's said to be one of the most active volcanoes. When I worked as an English teacher in Rwanda, I saw the glow from its top at nights. I talked with my kids about volcanoes and they wrote their essays about possible eruptions and how to act under these circumstances. Summaries: essays.agency [essays.agency]

Re:

[RockDoctor]

It also has a very fluid, fast moving lava. If you can get away from the active magma channel, that's not too bad (20mph lava is easier to avoid than a 200mph nuee ardente), but if the flow splits high up on the mountain (or you get two flows from two fissures) you can get caught. Interesting petrology to those lavas - I remember having to study several of them in Igneous Petrology classes. Wish I still had my notes.

Re:

[sabbede]

I'm concerned more with your poor grammar and spelling. Are you talking about one "SlashDolt Communist Marxist" or more? Isn't "Communist Marxist" redundant? Also, when directly appending an 's' to the end of a word ending with the letter 'y', change the 'y' to 'ie' - thus, "classifies".