This is an earthcache, so there is no container at the coordinates. You need to go to these coordinates and answer the geology-based questions at the end of the description to log this find. The coordinates take you to the starting point of any gorilla or golden monkey trekking in the national park.
The D/T rating could really vary, depending on whether you decide to go trekking. It can be difficult to get to Rwanda. You need to ask for permission way in advance for a gorilla trekking permit, and there is a high fee for it. You also need a visa to enter Rwanda from many countries. You are required to go trekking with a guide and must meet at the posted coordinates to get organized for the trekking. Covid PCR testing is required within 72 hours of any primate treks(at least at the time of publication date). The climbs can be physically challenging, especially being at high altitude. There are also inherent dangers in the park due to wild animal exposure. One tracker in each tracking group even goes with a gun to protect the group from dangerous animals(such as buffalo). You can also hire a local porter to carry your bag and help you across trickier spots of the hikes. But it has been pointed out that you do not need to go trekking in order to do this earthcache, so the D/T is being modified to reflect that reality.
The Virunga Mountains are a chain of volcanoes in East Africa, along the Northern Border of Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Uganda. The mountain range is a branch of the Albertine Rift Mountains, which border the western branch of the East Africa Rift. The East African Rift Valley system marks the boundary between two plates: the Nubian plate to the west and the Somalian plate to the east. The volcanoes are located between Lake Edward and Lake Kivu. The name Virunga is an English version of the Kinarwanda word ibirunga, which means "volcanoes." The range includes 8 major volcanoes. Most are dormant except 2 in the DRC(Mount Nyiragongo and Mount Nyamuragira). The last eruption of the Virunga Volcanoes occurred in the DRC in May of 2021.
To the East of the African Rift Valley and its active Virunga volcanoes Nyamulagira and Nyiragongo, lies the central and eastern part of the Virunga Mountains also called ‘the off-rift Virunga”. This part constitutes six large and dormant volcanoes, and numerous small eruptive centers scattered in groups over the lava fields. Some of these off-rift volcanoes are home to groups of the endangered Mountain Gorilla species. Five of these dormant volcanoes are located partly within Rwanda- Mount Muhabura, Mount Sabyinyo, Mount Gahinga, Mount Karisimbi and Mount Bisoke.
The Karisoke Research Center is between Mount Karisimbi and Mount Bisoke.
Volcanoes National Park is located in the Musanze District in the northwestern part of Rwanda. In French-Parc National des Vocans. In Kinarwanda-Pariki y'lgihugu u'lbirunga. It is 62 square miles of park.
Mount Karisimbi is the largest of the entire Virunga range. Its summit is the highest point in the region at 14,790 ft(4507m). The summit is sometimes snow-covered during the dry season. The volcano has a pit crater named Muntango and a caldera La Branca, The most recent activity of Karisimbi occurred with a lava flow on Karisimbi’s southeastern flank. The youngest of these trachyte flows was dated at approximately 10,000 years ago. Karisimbi is considered dormant and not extinct volcano by some scientists. Here it is:
Bisoke (or Visoke)is 12,180ft (3711m)is a steep volcano located north-east of Karisimbi. Visoke has a summit crater lake and erosional valleys.
Sabinyo stands at 3645 m. Its Kinyarwanda its name stands for "teeth of the old man", an allusion to its rough profile with several peaks and deep erosional values. Rocks of ages ranging between 0.264 and 0.014 million years old have been found here.
Gahinga is 3474 m high and lies at an elevated ridge to the East of Sabinyo. It has a flat-topped smooth cone with steep slopes. Gahinga is smaller in volume compared to its neighbors.
Muhavura(or Muhabura), 4127 m tall, is one of the more voluminous volcanoes. Its steep peak holds a small crater lake. Rock datings at Muhavura have reported ages ranging between 0.251 and 0.020 million years old.
These volcanoes are stratovolcanoes.
A stratovolcano is a conical volcano built up of many layers(strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Tephra is frgmented material produced by a volcanic eruption regardless of composition, fragment size or emplacement mechanism. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are charachterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and periodic intervals of explosive eruptions(violent) and effusive eruptions(steady flow of lava onto the ground). Some have collapsed summit craters called calderas. Lava from stratovolcanoes due to high viscosity usually hardens before spreading far. The magma forming this lava is often felsic, having high to intermediate levels of silica(such as rhyolite, dacite, or andesite) with lesser amounts of less viscous mafic magma.
In geology, felsic is a modifier describing igneous rocks that are rich in elements that form feldspur and quartz. Mafic rocks are relatively richer in magnesium and iron. Felsic refers to silicate materials, magma, and rocks which are enriched in the lighter elements such as silicon, oxygen, aluminum sodium and potassium. Felsic magma or lava is higher in viscosity than mafic magma/lava. Felsic rocks are usually light in color and have specfic gravity under three. The most common felsic rock is granite. Common felsic minerals include quartz, muscovite, orthoclase and sodium-rich plagioclase feldspars(albite-rick).
Stratovolcanoes are more common than shield volcanoes. They are common at subduction zones, forming chains and clusters along plate tectonic boundaries, where oceanic crust is drawn under continental crust or another oceanic plate.
The magma forming stratovolcanoes rises when trapped water(in hydrated minerals and porous basalt rock of the upper oceanic crust) is released into mantle rock of the asthenosphere above the sinking oceanic slab.
Pyroclastic flows are swift, avalanche-like, ground-sweeping, incandescent mixtures of hot volcanic debris, fine ash, fragmented lava and superheated gases, that can travel over 160 km/hr(100mph). A lahar is a violent type of mudflow or debris flow composed of a slurry of pyroclastic material, rocky debris and water typically from a volcano along a river valley. They are extremely destructive and can flow tens of meters/second and can be up to 140m(460 ft)deep.
Ash is very fine and will become integrated with soil quickly provided it is not overly acidic. Regrowth could take decades but the ecosystem could recover and become abundant. In comparison, if lava flows into the area it could take hundreds or thousands of years to recover because the lava field is rocky and needs to wait for time to weather the rock and form gaps and cracks, where seeds could root.
Volcanic soil is so fertile because it is derived from volcanic lava and ash which are rich in iron, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, phosphorous, sulfur silicon and many other trace elements.
Please answer the following by messaging me.
1. What volcanoes can you see, and is/are these volcanoes active, dormant or extinct? Do any of the volcanoes you see have snow on them?
2. What does the soil and/or rocks look like here and why? Does the soil seem fertile? Is it supporting the growth of anything and what?
3. Include in your log a photo taken during your visit here of something that may be here due to the richness of the local volcanic soil or a photo of you in front of one of the Rwandan volcanoes.