Country: | Tanzania | ||
Subregion Name: | Eastern Africa | ||
Volcano Number: | 0202-15= | ||
Volcano Type: | Stratovolcano | ||
Volcano Status: | Holocene | ||
Last Known Eruption: | Unknown | ||
Summit Elevation: | 5895 m | 19,340 feet | |
Latitude: | 3.07°S | 3°4'0"S | |
Longitude: | 37.35°E | 37°21'0"E | |
Massive Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, consists of three large stratovolcanoes constructed along a NW-SE trend. The ice-capped, 5895-m-high summit towers 5200 m above the surrounding plains. Activity at the older cone of Shira that forms the broad WNW shoulder of Kilimanjaro began during the Pliocene, and the extensively dissected Mawenzi forms a prominent, sharp-topped peak of Pleistocene age on the upper ESE flank dominated by a densely packed radial dike swarm. More than 250 satellitic cones occupy a rift zone to the NW and SE of Kibo, the central stratovolcano. A 2.4 x 3.6 km caldera gives the summit of Kibo an elongated, broad profile. Most of Kilimanjaro was constructed during the Pleistocene, but a group of youthful-looking nested summit craters are of apparent Holocene age, and fumarolic activity continues. |