Lake Kivu

Rwanda / Kibuye /

Lake Kivu is one of the Great Lakes of Africa. It lies on the border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, and is in the Albertine (western) Rift, a part of the Great Rift Valley. Lake Kivu empties into the Ruzizi River, which flows southwards into Lake Tanganyika. It is thus one of the sources of the Congo River system. The lake covers a total surface area of some 2,700 km2 (1,040 sq mi) and stands at a height of 1,460 metres (4,790 ft) above sea level. Its deepest depth is 480m.

Until recently only a local brewery was extracting methane for their needs. Now the government has contacted with a company for large-scale extraction and generation of 25 megawatts and more with excess power to be sold to adjacent nations.


Lake Kivu is one of three known exploding lakes, along with Cameroonian Lake Nyos and Lake Monoun, that experience violent lake overturns. Analysis of Lake Kivu's geological history indicates sporadic massive biological extinction on millennial timescales. The trigger for lake overturns in Lake Kivu's case is unknown but volcanic activity is suspected. The gaseous chemical composition of exploding lakes is unique to each lake; in Lake Kivu's case, methane and carbon dioxide due to lake water interaction with a volcano. The amount of methane is estimated to be 65 cubic kilometers (if burnt over one year, it would give an average power of about 100 gigawatts for the whole period). There is also an estimated 256 cubic kilometers of carbon dioxide. The methane is reported to be produced by microbial reduction of the volcanic CO2.[3] The risk from a possible Lake Kivu overturn is catastrophic, dwarfing other documented lake overturns at Lakes Nyos and Monoun, because of the approximately two million people living in the lake basin.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Kivu#Chemistry
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   1°59'55"S   29°7'2"E

Comments

  • You should move the photos, link and other information to the older tag, located to the north of this one.
  • The "older tag" referred to, if one reads the notes material on that entry, appears to refer not to the entire lake, but to the northern portion which is "le lac vert". Thus this tag refers to the entire lake.
  • In reviewing further, the other tag referred to ("le Lac Vert") refers not to the north part of the main lake, but the semi-detached portion to the NW.
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This article was last modified 10 years ago