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Mount Cameroon
 
 
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Mount Cameroon is an active volcano
Volcano

A volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface or Crust , which allows hot, molten rock, ash, and gases to escape from below the surface....
 in Cameroon
Cameroon

The Republic of Cameroon is a unitary state of central and western Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south....
 near the Gulf of Guinea
Gulf of Guinea

The Gulf of Guinea is the part of the Atlantic Ocean southwest of Africa. The intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian is in the gulf. According to the International Hydrographic Organization, the Gulf's oceanic border is the rhumb line that runs from Cape Palmas in Liberia to Cape Lopez in Gabon ....
. Mount Cameroon is also known as Cameroon Mountain or Fako (the name of the higher of its two peaks) or by its native name Mongo ma Ndemi ("Mountain of Greatness").

Location, Recent Eruptions
The mountain is part of the area of volcanic activity known as the Cameroon Volcanic Line, which also includes Lake Nyos
Lake Nyos

Lake Nyos is a crater lake in the Northwest Province, Cameroon of Cameroon, located about northwest of Yaound?. Nyos is a deep lake high on the flank of an inactive volcano in the Oku volcanic plain along the Cameroon line of volcanic activity....
, the site of a disaster in 1986.






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Encyclopedia


Mount Cameroon is an active volcano
Volcano

A volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface or Crust , which allows hot, molten rock, ash, and gases to escape from below the surface....
 in Cameroon
Cameroon

The Republic of Cameroon is a unitary state of central and western Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south....
 near the Gulf of Guinea
Gulf of Guinea

The Gulf of Guinea is the part of the Atlantic Ocean southwest of Africa. The intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian is in the gulf. According to the International Hydrographic Organization, the Gulf's oceanic border is the rhumb line that runs from Cape Palmas in Liberia to Cape Lopez in Gabon ....
. Mount Cameroon is also known as Cameroon Mountain or Fako (the name of the higher of its two peaks) or by its native name Mongo ma Ndemi ("Mountain of Greatness").

Location, Recent Eruptions


The mountain is part of the area of volcanic activity known as the Cameroon Volcanic Line, which also includes Lake Nyos
Lake Nyos

Lake Nyos is a crater lake in the Northwest Province, Cameroon of Cameroon, located about northwest of Yaound?. Nyos is a deep lake high on the flank of an inactive volcano in the Oku volcanic plain along the Cameroon line of volcanic activity....
, the site of a disaster in 1986. The most recent eruptions occurred on March 28, 1999 and May 28, 2000.

Description and Travellers' Accounts


Mount Cameroon is one of Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
's largest volcanoes, rising to above the coast of west Cameroon. It rises from the coast through tropical rainforest
Rainforest

Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions setting minimum normal annual rainfall between 1750?2000 mm . The monsoon trough, alternately known as the intertropical convergence zone, plays a significant role in creating Earth's tropical rain forests....
 to a bare summit which is cold, windy, and occasionally brushed with snow. The massive steep-sided volcano of dominantly basaltic-to-trachybasaltic composition forms a volcanic horst constructed above a basement of Precambrian
Precambrian

The Precambrian is an informal name for the supereon comprising the eon of the geologic timescale that came before the current Phanerozoic eon....
 metamorphic
Metamorphic rock

Metamorphic rock is the result of the transformation of an existing rock type, the protolith, in a process called metamorphism, which means "change in form"....
 rocks covered with Cretaceous
Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide, is a geologic period from circa to million years ago . In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows on the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period....
 to Quaternary
Quaternary

The Quaternary Period is the Geologic Time Scale period after the Neogene Period, spanning 1.805 +/- 0.005 million years ago to the present. The Quaternary includes two geologic epochs: the Pleistocene and the Holocene epoch ....
 sediments. More than 100 small cinder cones, often fissure-controlled parallel to the long axis of the massive 1,400 km³ (336 mi³) volcano, occur on the flanks and surrounding lowlands. A large satellitic peak, Etinde (also known as Little Mount Cameroon
Little Mount Cameroon

Little Mount Cameroon, also known as Etinde, is a 5,619 ft peak on the southern flank of Mount Cameroon....
), is located on the southern flank near the coast. Mount Cameroon has the most frequent eruptions of any West African volcanoes. The first written accounts of volcanic activity could be the one from the Carthaginian
Carthage

Carthage refers both to an ancient city in present-day Tunisia, and a modern-day suburb of Tunis. The civilization that developed within the city's sphere of influence is referred to as Punic or Carthaginian....
 Hanno the Navigator
Hanno the Navigator

Hanno the Navigator was a Carthage explorer c. 500 BC, best known for his naval exploration of the African coast....
, who might have observed the mountain in the 5th century BC. Moderate explosive and effusive eruptions have occurred throughout history from both summit and flank vents. A 1922 eruption on the southwestern flank produced a lava flow that reached the Atlantic coast, and a lava flow from a 1999 south-flank eruption stopped only 200 m (660 ft) from the sea, cutting the coastal highway.

The peak can be reached by hikers
Hiking

Hiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often on trail. It is such a popular activity that there are numerous :Category:Hiking organizations worldwide....
, while the annual Mount Cameroon Race of Hope
Mount Cameroon Race of Hope

The Mount Cameroon Race of Hope is an annual, televised running held at Mount Cameroon in the Southwest Province of Cameroon in the last weekend of January or the first weekend of February....
 scales the peak in around 4½ hours.

English explorer Mary Kingsley
Mary Kingsley

Mary Henrietta Kingsley was an England writer and exploration who greatly influenced European ideas about Africa and African people.Kingsley was born in Islington....
, one of the first Europeans to scale the mountain, recounts her expedition in her 1897 memoir Travels in West Africa.

See also



External links