Is a possible dormant volcano stirring in Nigeria?

June 17, 2011 – NIGERIA – The Nigerian Observer quotes the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency saying that ‘the rock, which has been emitting smoke in the past seven months, was a sign of “a dormant volcano which may erupt in future,” while a scientist from the Centre for Geodesy and Geodynamics of the National Space Research and Development Agency called the activity ‘a result of the impact of an earthquake that occurred in Pindiga formation, Gombe State, hundreds of years ago’. Elombah.com reports that ‘Local communities living around the Ndanijam Kargo Hill  in Funakaye Local Goverment Area and the surrounding villages in Gombe State of the North-Eastern part of Nigeria have been advised to relocate as a result of smoke emission at Abadaguri rocky range because the dormant volcano in the area is likely to erupt any time from now’. The gas has apparently been ‘gushing out from the rocky area’ for seven or eight months, and has ‘an odour of burning plastic’. The Daily Champion reports reassuringly that the Nigeria Meteorological Agency has described the eruption as ‘extinct or dormant’, and adds the interesting information (from a Funakaye local official) that ‘the crack where the smoke was emitting from, used to be the entrance to the house of a renowned hunter in the area, Abbaguri ,who lived in the cafe hundreds of years ago’. –The Volcanism blog

contribution by Jose