The rarest volcano in the world is located in Africa and is undoubtedly the most fascinating of all volcanoes known to man.
A majestic mountain emerges in the northeast of Tanzania, 2,962 meters above sea level. Its name is Ol Doinyo Lengai, although it is known among the Maasai as “The Mountain of God”, it is an active volcano. But it is not just any stratovolcano, it is the only one of its kind, it is undoubtedly extremely fascinating.
But what makes it so strange? Unlike the other known volcanoes on the planet, La Montaña de Dios enters at temperatures that never exceed 510°C. Well below the 1000°C of other active volcanoes.
Ol Doinyo Lengai is the only asset that erupts natrocarbonatite lava, a very strange species that is in fact so cold, that it does not have the reddish color that so characterizes volcanic eruptions. On the contrary, it forms rivers of cold, gray lava, without the incandescent red color of basaltic lava volcanoes.
Flows like water
This volcano is so extremely amazing that its lava behaves like that, flowing faster compared to other volcanoes. This is due to the change in its viscosity thanks to the lack of structure-forming silica molecular chains. On the contrary, the lava of Ol Doinyo Lengai is made up of carbonatite, which contains a high amount of alkaline elements such as calcium, sodium and dissolved carbon dioxide.
For this reason, the eruptions of the Mountain of God are an indescribable spectacle, with black lava that forms meandering rivers descending the slopes with ease.
If this is not already very strange, the melting point of the elements that make up its lava is too low. Consequently, there are occasions where fountains of black lava fire emerge and cross the sky, although they end up freezing in mid-air. Frozen lava particles break up in the air and drift away with the wind.
It is believed that its symmetrical cone began to form 370 thousand years ago, however, it ended approximately 15 thousand years ago. Moment when The Mountain of God as we know it today emerged; the rarest in the world.