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Ol Doinyo Eburru is an active complex of volcanoes in the
The Eburru massif rises to above the floor of the rift.
It developed in three stages. The products of the first stage, in the west, are now mostly buried apart from small pantelleritic lava outcrops. The second stage formed the Waterloo Ridge on the eastern side of the massif. These rocks came from a series of pyroclastic eruptions originating in a fault zone.
The third stage created craters, small cones, domes and lava flows. The summit has more than fifty craters with diameters from to . The pumice lapilli and ash beds from these centers covers most of the massif as well as the western shoulder of the rift. The youngest formations are no more than a few hundred years old.
The Eburru massif today is ridge-shaped and eroded, with an east–west orientation.
The volcanic complex has an area of . There are two summits, Eburru hill and West hill.
There are young craters on the eastern part of the ridge.
The east flank has rhyolitic domes that were probably created in the Holocene and are still only partly overgrown with vegetation. There are widespread fumaroles in
Great Rift Valley, Kenya
The Great Rift Valley is part of an intra-continental ridge system that runs through Kenya from north to south. It is part of the Gregory Rift, the eastern branch of the East African Rift, which starts in Tanzania to the south and continues nor ...
to the northwest of Lake Naivasha.
It is being exploited for geothermal energy
Geothermal energy is the thermal energy in the Earth's crust which originates from the formation of the planet and from radioactive decay of materials in currently uncertain but possibly roughly equal proportions. The high temperature and pres ...
.
Soysambu Conservancy is located to the north of the massif, between Lake Elmenteita
Lake Elmenteita is a soda lake, in the Great Rift Valley, about 120 km northwest of Nairobi, Kenya.
Geography
Elmenteita is derived from the Maasai word , meaning "dust place", a reference to the dryness and dustiness of the area, espec ...
to the east and Lake Nakuru to the west.
Geology
Eburru is part of a group of volcanoes in the rift that also includes Suswa,Longonot
Mount Longonot is a stratovolcano located southeast of Lake Naivasha in the Great Rift Valley of Kenya, Africa. It is thought to have last erupted in the 1860s. Its name is derived from the Maasai word ''Oloonong'ot'', meaning "mountains of many ...
, Olkaria, Elmenteita
Elmenteita is a settlement in Kenya's Rift Valley Province.
References
Populated places in Nakuru County
{{RiftValleyKE-geo-stub ...
and Menengai.
It is separated from Olkaria volcano to the south by the Akira plains.
In this part of the rift, the eastern margin is covered by trachytic tuffs, often ignimbritic, and some trachytic lavas. The western margin is covered by trachytic and pantelleritic
Pantellerite is a type of volcanic rock, specifically a peralkaline rhyolite. It has a higher iron and lower aluminium composition than comendite. It is named after Pantelleria, a volcanic island in the Strait of Sicily and the type location ...
pumice as well as deposits of ash falls ejected from Eburru.
The Eburru massif rises to above the floor of the rift.
It developed in three stages. The products of the first stage, in the west, are now mostly buried apart from small pantelleritic lava outcrops. The second stage formed the Waterloo Ridge on the eastern side of the massif. These rocks came from a series of pyroclastic eruptions originating in a fault zone.
The third stage created craters, small cones, domes and lava flows. The summit has more than fifty craters with diameters from to . The pumice lapilli and ash beds from these centers covers most of the massif as well as the western shoulder of the rift. The youngest formations are no more than a few hundred years old.
The Eburru massif today is ridge-shaped and eroded, with an east–west orientation.
The volcanic complex has an area of . There are two summits, Eburru hill and West hill.
There are young craters on the eastern part of the ridge.
The east flank has rhyolitic domes that were probably created in the Holocene and are still only partly overgrown with vegetation. There are widespread fumaroles in cinder cone
A cinder cone (or scoria cone) is a steep conical hill of loose pyroclastic fragments, such as volcanic clinkers, volcanic ash, or scoria that has been built around a volcanic vent. The pyroclastic fragments are formed by explosive eruptions o ...
s and craters along the faults in the massif.
Geothermal development
In October 2009 Geothermal Development Associates announced that they had signed a contract with Kenya Electricity Generating Company Limited to design, supply and commission a wellheadgeothermal power
Geothermal power is electrical power generated from geothermal energy. Technologies in use include dry steam power stations, flash steam power stations and binary cycle power stations. Geothermal electricity generation is currently used in 2 ...
plant at Eburru.
The plant would include a 2.5 MW steam turbine generator manufactured by Elliott Turbomachinery in Jeannette, Pennsylvania.
It has been estimated that Eburru could support a 20 MW geothermal power station.
References
Sources
* * * * * {{Great Rift Valley, Kenya Volcanoes of Kenya Mountains of Kenya Great Rift Valley Landforms of Rift Valley Province Nakuru County Active volcanoes Quaternary Africa Complex volcanoes