About swarms of long-period earthquakes at volcano Nyamuragira of the Virunga region, Western Rift Valley of Africa (D.R. Congo)

Abstract

Swarms of Long Period earthquakes generated by the Nyamuragira volcano for the period from January 2000 to November 2006 before 21 January 2000, 5 February 2001, 25 July 2002, 8 May 2004 and 27 November 2006 Nyamuragira eruptions have been analyzed. Interest is focused on the frequency distribution of these earthquakes and on the variation of the m-value of observed earthquake swarms. It is found that m-values which generally vary between 0.9 and 1.6, and shifts towards larger values of 1.7 to 3.23 two to four months prior to eruptions of the volcano.

Keywords

• swarms
• earthquakes
• volcano
• Nyamuragira
• Virunga