Do you know what is the biggest volcano in Africa?

The volcano is a very beautiful, but at the same time dangerous and unpredictable phenomenon of nature. To see its eruption means to receive unforgettable impressions, however at this time it is necessary to be at the big distance from the center of events, after all it covers ashes, lava and volcanic bombs huge areas. Such phenomena of nature exist on all continents. And today we will talk about what is the biggest volcano in Africa, what it is.

The highest, but no longer active volcano here is Kilimanjaro. Its height is about 5895 meters. In Swahili, the name means "white mountain". It is the largest volcano in Africa in Tanzania, just 300 km south of the equator. Kilimanjaro consists of 3 separate cones, the highest peak is Kibo (5895 meters). The second peak is Mavenzi (5149 m), the third - Shira (3962 m). At the top of Kibo there is a crater with a diameter of about 3 km and a depth of 800 m.

The highest volcano in Africa, whose name you already know, began to form a few million years ago, when the lava went beyond the fault zone. Mavenzi and Shira are already extinct peaks, but Kibo can come out of the state of rest at any moment and break out with renewed vigor. The last significant eruption was 360 000 years ago, and data on the activity of the volcano were recorded in the XIX century.

The first discoverer of Kilimanjaro was Johannes Rebman. It happened in 1848, although, of course, the mention of this volcano was for many years before the official opening date. Austrian Ludwig Purceller and German Hans Meyer were the first to climb the highest peak of Kilimanjaro on October 6, 1889.

The largest volcano in Africa has on its top a lot of snow, which appeared there many years ago after the ice age, and now its number is gradually decreasing. Scientists believe that soon the snow will disappear there and at all.

Kilimanjaro is a beautiful mountain, climbing which is very popular with tourists, because it allows you to feel at once 3 climatic zones. At the very beginning (the first 3 km) there are tropical forest, mountain rivers, streams and waterfalls. Residents in this area successfully grow bananas, coffee, corn. In the middle of the ascent there is a desert, and at the very top is snow. Kilimanjaro's peculiarities are the absence of a bamboo zone and in a large biodiversity with a fairly low endemicity of some species.

The biggest volcano in Africa is an ideal place for tourists. There are even specially created routes, some of them are designed exclusively for lifting, others are for descent. However, this is not as simple as it might seem. People before the ascent must necessarily be prepared, because at a considerable height it is easy to experience lack of oxygen, headache and hypothermia. There may be swelling of the lungs or brain. According to some reports, more people died on Kilimanjaro than on Mount Everest.

There are also active volcanoes in Africa, and one of the largest is Cameroon, whose height is more than 4 km. It is quite active, so it has good chances to quickly build up a large height.