The Katunga Volcano, South-West Uganda

Abstract

The extinct volcano of Katunga (E. 30° 11′ 27″; S. 0° 28′ 17″ approx.) is in northern Igara which is part of western Ankole in south-west Uganda. The volcano is of special interest: (a)because of its isolation, the nearest neighbouring manifestation of volcanic activity being that in connection with the crater in which Lake Nkuguti lies, about 12½ miles to the N.N.W. in Bunyaruguru; and (b) because true lava-flows, the first to be discovered in the volcanic areas of north-west Ankole and Toro, composed of potash-rich olivine-melilitite (katungite), were extruded from it. The volcano is an outlier of the southern edge of that part of the western volcanic field of Uganda lying in, and adjacent to, the portion of the western rift depression about the northern end of Lake Edward, the southern end of the Buwenzori massif, and Lake George.