Mount Cameroon

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Mount Cameroon
Craters left after the eruptions in 2000
Elevation	4,095 m (13,435 ft)
Location	Southwest Province, Cameroon
Prominence	3,961 m (12,995 ft)
Coordinates	4°12′N 9°11′E
Type	stratovolcano
Last eruption	2000
First ascent	Sir Richard Burton, 1861
Easiest route	scramble

Mount Cameroon, also known as Cameroon Mountain or Fako (the name of the higher of its two peaks) or by its native name Mongo ma Ndemi ("Mountain of Greatness"), is an active volcano in Cameroon, near the Gulf of Guinea. It is part of the area of volcanic activity known as the Cameroon Volcanic Line, which also includes Lake Nyos, the site of the 1986 Lake Nyos tragedy. The most recent eruptions occurred on March 28, 1999 and May 28, 2000.

Mount Cameroon is one of Africa's largest volcanoes, rising to 4,095 metres (13,430 ft) above the coast of west Cameroon. It rises from the coast through tropical rainforest to a bare summit which is cold, windy, and occasionally brushed with snow. The massive steep-sided volcano of dominantly basaltic-to-trachybasaltic composition forms a volcanic horst constructed above a basement of Precambrian metamorphic rocks covered with Cretaceous to Quaternary sediments. More than 100 small cinder cones, often fissure-controlled parallel to the long axis of the massive 1400 km³ (336 mi³) volcano, occur on the flanks and surrounding lowlands. A large satellitic peak, Etinde (also known as Little Cameroon), is located on the southern flank near the coast. Mount Cameroon has the most frequent eruptions of any West African volcanoes. The first written accounts of volcanic activity come from the Carthaginian navigator Hannon, who observed the mountain in the 5th century BC. Moderate explosive and effusive eruptions have occurred throughout history from both summit and flank vents. A 1922 eruption on the southwestern flank produced a lava flow that reached the Atlantic coast, and a lava flow from a 1999 south-flank eruption stopped only 200 m from the sea.

The peak can be reached by hikers, while the annual Mount Cameroon Race scales the peak in around 4½ hours.

English explorer Mary Kingsley, one of the first Europeans to scale the mountain, recounts her expedition in her 1897 memoir Travels in West Africa.

[edit] Elevation

The 4,095 m elevation given here is supported by most authorities, but an elevation of 4,070 m is given by some, and SRTM and GPS evidence suggests that it could be as low as 4,040 m. The elevation is further complicated by volcanic activity.

[edit] Sources

Siebert, L. and T. Simkin (2002-). Volcanoes of the World: an Illustrated Catalog of Holocene Volcanoes and their Eruptions. Smithsonian Institution, Global Volcanism Program Digital Information Series, GVP-3. URL: http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/

[edit] External links