VOLCANOES – PHOTOGRAPHED FROM THE AIR

OLDOINYO LENGAI

Oldoinyo Lengai, the sacred mountain of the Masai, towers 2,890 metres over the savannah in the Great Rift Valley, east Africa. The crater is filled with a lava that is unique in the world, with a high sodium and potassium content, and a temperature of only 550 degrees centigrade, rather than the usual 1,000 degrees. It glows slightly at night, whereas by day it resembles dark mud. When it has cooled, it turns white in a matter of days. Lengai’s mound is only green in the rainy season, being parched and yellow for most of the year.