Chyulu Hills
About Chyulu Hills
The 100-km-long NW-SE-trending Chyulu Hills volcanic field is located 150 km E of the Kenya Rift. It contains several hundred small cones and flows, including numerous recent cinder cones. Two of these, Shaitani and Chainu, erupted during the mid-19th century. Volcanic activity began about 1.4 million years ago with eruptions in the northern Chyulu Hills and migrated to the SE, where a large number of Holocene cones are found. Many of the cinder cones are aligned along dominantly NW-trending older faults and younger NNE-trending fissures. The silica contents of the lava flows increased with time. Early flows consisted of foidites; later Holocene lava flows are basanites and alkali basalts. Six tephra deposits from Lake Chala were attributed by Martin-Jones et al. (2020) to Pleistocene eruptions in the Chyulu Hills (~87-16.8 ka), along with one Holocene mafic cryptotephra 14C dated at about 4.2 ka.
Eruption reports
Reports from GDACS and NASA EONET linked to this volcano.
No eruption reports in our records yet. New reports appear here automatically.
Earthquakes nearby, 30 days
Within about 50 km. Swarms of small quakes can sometimes accompany volcanic unrest.
No earthquakes recorded nearby in the last 30 days.