Tremors End as Volcano Erupts

Ol Doinyo Lengai, Tanzania (The Mountain of God)

17 July 2007:
We were in our apartment (2nd Floor above ground) in the Westlands area of Nairobi, Kenya at 17:10 when the apartment starting shaking. The furniture vibrated and the apartment shook. The Dining table rattled and the pictures on the wall rattled and swung. I looked outside to see people emerging from their apartments to stand on the grass and stare around in confusion. We have had several small tremors within the last week, but this was by far the worst. I estimate that the tremor was about 4 on the Richter scale, here 90 miles from the epicenter, where the quake was measured at a magnitude of 6.0.

19 July 2007:
The tremors that have plagued the area for over 150 miles around Ol Doinyo Lengai over the past week came to an end with the eruption of this volcano. From reports, lava poured down one side of the mountain and over 5000 people were evacuated from surrounding villages. "Ol Doinyo Lengai is a live, volcanic mountain. It erupts almost annually but we are surprised that this time it has been accompanied by an earthquake and this is worrying us," Mr Kasunga, a local district commissioner, said.

Since the eruption, there have only been a couple of very light tremors felt in Nairobi and no more earthquakes are expected, now that the pressure has been released.