Is lake Victoria in Africa on a volcanoe?

Answer 1

Lake Victoria in Africa is a volcanic crater. Its the hole typically left when an explosive volcano is mostly blown away. The volcanic origin of the lake is not obvious from the ground where you cant see much of the perimeter of this mighty lake at one time. However, I was once bogged on tour in a rain storm beside the lake for three days. We were flown out from a small strip near the Lake, in a small low flying plane. This took us over the centre of the lake, at a relatively low elevation. from that position, I could see all of the perimeter of the lake at the same time, and this revealing that the shore line strata all sloped upwards to our central position, This is the typical structure seen in Crater Lake in USA, and in the cliffs surrounding Mt Fuji in Japan, Those rising inwards strata all increase in gradient toward the centre of the earlier peak, rising more steeply as they approach the centre. You can see the same in the ridges of hills that surround many of the explosive volcanoes in Kamchatka also. In the case of Fuji, only 5 small lakes remain of the once circular caldera lake. Crater Lake has the full lake, but it will go the way of all others with time. By the time each such lakes is gone, the earlier volcano will be all but covered, and conditions will be perfect for another catastrophic explosion. David Roots BSc, PhD.