The 2002 Nyiragongo eruption was a major eruption that struck the Democratic Republic of Congo at 8.25 local time on 17 January 2002.The eruption was caused by the rifting of the Earth's crust as the African Plate is breaking apart to form two new plates called the Somali Plate and Nubian Plate. Hotspots are also partly responsible for the activity at Nyiragongo. The Nyiragongo eruption was a 13 to 20 millions cube magnitude eruption which lasted for about 3 days.It killed around 45 people and left approximately 120,000 people homeless between those few days.

The eruption even reached the outskirts of Goma and it was particularly destructive as almost 20% of Goma comprising of 4,500 was destroyed,leaving 120,000 homeless and helpless. Warnings were given and the eruption forced 300,000 to 400,000 people to be evacuated from the cities stretching from the Rwandan border to the neighbouring Gisenyi during the eruption. Most of the deaths were caused by falling buildings. It was first said that only 45 people were killed but latest figures showed that 147 people were killed mostly by the explosion in the Goma central petrol station.30,000 people were displaced,350,000 were affected and 14,000 homes were destroyed by that single eruption.Approximately 470 injured people were reported to have suffered burns, fractures and gas intoxication. 47 people were killed directly by the eruption and 350,000 were fleeing from the lava.

The Government decided to seek help from the United Nations and they distrubuted up to nine thousand kilogrammes of high-protein biscuits to the people.The government also provided medical supplies for the people.Money was also received to help the country ease its burden.

What we can do to minimize damage from volcanic eruptions is that we can:

1.Have an evacuation plan ready.

2.Educate the people on what they should do during volcanic eruptions.

3.Carry out activities that allow the people to be prepared during an eruption.

4.The government can also provide a monitoring system so that there will be faster mobilization of evacuation units.

Bibliography:

Websites:

1.Wikepedia,the free encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyiragongo ,extracted 28-02-2010

2.The French-British scientific team, http://pagesperso-orange.fr/mhalb/kivu/pdf/concorde_sept2003.pdf ,28-02-2010