Namarunu

About Namarunu

The Namarunu trachytic shield volcano along the axis of the East African Rift is topped by late Pleistocene and Holocene cones and lava flows. Though largely Pliocene, voluminous basaltic effusive and explosive activity took place during the early Holocene on the lower N, E, and S flanks. The activity produced fissure-controlled subaerial basaltic scoria cones and lava flows, and partially or completely sub-lacustral tuff cones, tuff rings, and pillow lavas. Olivine basalts erupted from a breached scoria cone at the summit. The youngest eruptions are more recent than the drying out of Lake Sugata about 3,000 years ago, and some could be similar in age to the recorded eruptions at The Barrier volcano to the north (Dunkley et al., 1993). Hot springs are located on some of the young volcanic cones on the rift valley floor and on the E side of the rift along the base of the Tirr Tirr Plateau.