Africa's Lake Kivu contains vast quantities of gas, which makes it both dangerous and valuable. Anjali Nayar asks whether it is possible to tap the gas without causing a disaster.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
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Africa's Lake Kivu contains vast quantities of gas, which makes it both dangerous and valuable. Anjali Nayar asks whether it is possible to tap the gas without causing a disaster.
Anjali Nayar
In late 2001, Mount Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was growing restless. Plumes of smoke issued from the central crater, alarming volcanologists in the nearby city of Goma. Then, on 17 January 2002, lava fountained from a fracture on Nyiragongo's southern flank. The molten rock snaked down the sides of the volcano and razed the centre of Goma, engulfing houses and setting off a string of explosions at fuel stations and power plants. That evening, the lava streamed into nearby Lake Kivu, generating a plume of water vapour that clouded the area for days1.
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