The Sahara Desert is Alive with Volcanoes
Mount Koussi, also called Emi Koussi, located in northern Chad is the highest peak of Africa’s largest driest desert, the Sahara.
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African Desert volcano Emi Koussi
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The Sahara desert is not just miles and miles of sand
In the Sahara desert, there are lots of sand dunes, with some of them as high as 500 feet high, that’s a little more than one and a half football fields and is taller than the Statue of Liberty. The Sahara is the largest desert on the African continent and is Earth's largest hot desert.
There are also volcanoes in the world’s largest hot desert, Emi Koussi. The Emi Koussi volcano at 2.1 miles above sea level is the highest peak of Africa’s largest driest desert, the Sahara.
The Tibesti are a mountain range in the central Sahara desert, mainly located in northern Chad and a small portion in southern Libya.
Africa's Emi Koussi volcano formation
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Tibesti Mountains |
Two older and overlapping calderas form a large depression surrounded by a distinctive rim. The youngest and smallest caldera, Era Kohor, formed because of eruptive activity within the past 2 million years.
Young volcanic features of the Emi Koussi, including lava flows and scoria cones are also thought to be less than 2 million years old. There are no historical records of eruptions at Emi Koussi, but there is an active thermal area on the southern side of the volcano.
Climbing and exploring Emi Koussi
The Tibesti Mountains are one of the most significant and perhaps least studied intra continental volcanic regions of the world. Political instability and the harsh Saharan climate have limited field access to the area.
The best time to climb the Emi Koussi is November to March. It does not present any particular difficulty as the climbing, the main obstacles being access, logistics and insecurity.