Roland PeaseIn 2002, the last time Nyiragongo volcano erupted, lava raced down its flanks into the crowded city of Goma, on the border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda.
About 250 people died, 20% of the city was destroyed, and hundreds of thousands fled. Since then, the at-risk population living in the shadow of the 3470-meter-tall volcano has more than doubled to 1.5 million.Now, conditions are ripe for another disaster, says Dario Tedesco, a volcanologist at the Luigi Vanvitelli University of Campania, who earlier this year led a campaign into the volcano’s roiling crater.
He and his colleagues found the lava lake there filling at an alarming rate, raising the risk that the molten rock could burst through the crater.