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Structure and Eruptive History of Karthala Volcano

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Active Volcanoes of the Southwest Indian Ocean

Part of the book series: Active Volcanoes of the World ((AVOLCAN))

Abstract

Much work has been done on Karthala volcano over the last 30 years concerning the volcanology, structural geology, petrology, geochemistry and geophysics. We focus here on the current state of knowledge about the structure of this typical shield volcano and its recent eruptive activity. Karthala is a large basaltic shield volcano with a typical “Hawaiian” shape, with two well-developed rift zones diverging from a polylobate summit caldera complex. Karthala has not been dissected by erosion, although the concave morphology of its southern and eastern flanks may have resulted from huge flank landslides. Karthala volcano is one of the most active African volcanoes. During the last two centuries, most of the eruptions have been magmatic, emitting alkali basalts. They have been characterised by eruptive fissures which opened along the rift zones, within the caldera, or at low elevation far from the rift zones and the caldera. Karthala’s eruptive style is mostly effusive; however, phreatic and phreatomagmatic explosions also occur. Karthala erupted regularly (with an average frequency of one eruption every 6–8 years) over the past 100 years until the phreatic eruption of 1991. Since then, its activity has increased, with four eruptions from 2005 to 2007, two of them with significant impacts on the local population. The two phreatomagmatic to violent-strombolian eruptions in 2005 were more explosive and long-lasting than the preceding eruptions, projecting ashes and volcanic debris onto the eastern part of the island, affecting as many as 245,000 people. In the recent past, the 1977 eruption was the most destructive of Karthala’s historic lava flows. But in 1858, a lava flow travelled 13 km from the upper part of the north rift zone to the western coast, going close to the capital Moroni. Wherever the location of the eruptive vent, lava flows can reach inhabited areas and the sea in a few hours.

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Aknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Sebastien Zaragosi for providing the frame of the Fig. 22.1. We are grateful to Fran Van Wyk de Vries for proofreading this manuscript. This paper benefited from the constructive comments of L. Michon and JF Lénat.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans, Université Blaise Pascal—CNRS—IRD, Observatoire de Physique du Globe de Clermont-Ferrand, 5 rue Kessler, 63038, Clermont-Ferrand, France

    Patrick Bachèlery & Ahmed Radadi Ali

  2. Laboratoire de Géographie Physique de Meudon (LGP), UMR 8591, 1 Place Aristide Briand, 92195, Meudon, France

    Julie Morin

  3. Observatoire Volcanologique du Piton de la Fournaise (OVPF), Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris Sorbonne Paris-Cité UMR 7154 CNRS, Université́ Paris Diderot, 75238, Paris, France

    Nicolas Villeneuve

  4. Observatoire Volcanologique du Karthala, CNDRS, Moroni, Grande Comore

    Hamidi Soulé, Hamidou Nassor & Ahmed Radadi Ali

Authors
  1. Patrick Bachèlery
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  2. Julie Morin
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  3. Nicolas Villeneuve
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  4. Hamidi Soulé
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  5. Hamidou Nassor
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  6. Ahmed Radadi Ali
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Patrick Bachèlery .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans, Univ. Blaise Pascal - Clermont-Ferrand, Clermont-Ferrand, France

    Patrick Bachelery

  2. Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans, Univ. Blaise Pascal - Clermont-Ferrand, Clermont-Ferrand, France

    Jean-François Lenat

  3. Piton de la Fournaise Volc. Observatory, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, La Plaine des Cafres, France

    Andrea Di Muro

  4. Laboratoire GeoSciences, University La Réunion, Saint-Denis, France

    Laurent Michon

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Bachèlery, P., Morin, J., Villeneuve, N., Soulé, H., Nassor, H., Ali, A.R. (2016). Structure and Eruptive History of Karthala Volcano. In: Bachelery, P., Lenat, JF., Di Muro, A., Michon, L. (eds) Active Volcanoes of the Southwest Indian Ocean. Active Volcanoes of the World. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31395-0_22

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