Rungwe mount

The Mont Rungwe is a Stratovolcan of Tanzania located in the south-west of the country, in the north of the Lac Malawi and crowned by a Caldeira four kilometers in diameter.

Geology

Formed 2,5 million years ago to the southern junction between the two branches of the Vallée of the great rift, its last volcanic activity probably dates from the Holocène.

Its Lave S Trachyte S formed at its top of the craters of explosion, the domes and the cones of lava little colonized by the vegetation. Its western side is covered with materials deposited by an avalanche left the top of the volcano which opened a breach in the wall of will caldeira while its north-western side presents cones and basaltic lava flows .

Biodiversity

Thanks to a Pluviometry higher than 3 000 millimetres per annum on the south-eastern sides of the Volcano (strongest of the south of Tanzania), a Tropical forest of mountain was installed on its slopes between 1 500 and 2 600 meters of altitude where it is replaced beyond by Alpage S. This forest zone, mainly formed of éricacées, creates an uninterrupted belt around the all the more remarkable volcano as it is the best example of this ecosystem in the south of the country. The classification in 1949 like forest reserve of the majority of this forest, is 13 652 hectares, was in particular justified by the presence of a certain number of endemic species of which some are threatened of extinction like the céphalophe of Abbott.

The volcano gave its name to a Espèce of Singe, the Rungwecebus kipunji . Initially attached to the kind Lophocebus , of the genetic studies finally showed a membership of the kind of the Babouin S.

External bond

International Birdlife - Avifauna of the Mount Rungwe

References

Southern highlands conservation program - MT Rungwe
Total volcanism program - Rungwe

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