Link to the Global Volcanism Program Home Page Volcano Photo National Museum of Natural History Home Page

Kilimanjaro   »  Summary

Kilimanjaro

Kilimanjaro Photo

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.

Global Volcanism ProgramDepartment of Mineral SciencesNational Museum of Natural HistorySmithsonian Institution

Copyright  |   | Privacy  |