Marsabit is a 6300 km basaltic

shield volcano A shield volcano is a type of volcano named for its low profile, resembling a shield lying on the ground. It is formed by the eruption of highly fluid (low viscosity) lava, which travels farther and forms thinner flows than the more viscous lava ...

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

, located 170 km east of the center of the

East African Rift The East African Rift (EAR) or East African Rift System (EARS) is an active continental rift zone in East Africa. The EAR began developing around the onset of the Miocene, 22–25 million years ago. It was formerly considered to be part of a l ...

, in Marsabit County near the town of Marsabit. This was primarily built during the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

, but some lava flows and explosive

maar A maar is a broad, low-relief volcanic crater caused by a phreatomagmatic eruption (an explosion which occurs when groundwater comes into contact with hot lava or magma). A maar characteristically fills with water to form a relatively shallow ...

-forming eruptions have occurred more recently. At least two of the maars host crater lakes. The volcano is covered by dense forest. Marsabit National Park is in the area. It was here, near a body of water they dubbed Lake Paradise, that American explorers

Martin and Osa Johnson Martin Elmer Johnson (October 9, 1884 – January 13, 1937) and Osa Helen Johnson (née Leighty, March 14, 1894 – January 7, 1953) were married United States, American adventurers and documentary filmmakers. In the first half of the 20th centur ...

spent time in the 1920s living and making wildlife documentaries. On 10 April 2006, a Harbin Y-12 II owned and operated by the Kenyan Air Force crashed in Mount Marsabit killing 14 of the 17 occupants onboard.

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20051224155242/http://www.kenyaforests.org/reports/Marsabitstatus.pdf Eastern Province (Kenya) Volcanoes of Kenya Maars Mountains of Kenya Volcanic crater lakes Pliocene shield volcanoes Pleistocene shield volcanoes Shield volcanoes of Africa {{volcanology-stub

See also

References

External links