Lake
Kivu ('kivu' is Bantu and means 'lake' - so a precise name, if not
very clarifying) is in the center with Lake Tanganyika below it and
Lake Victoria to the east (right). Lake Kivu has a surface area of
about 2700 square kilometers (= 1000 square miles). It is nearly a
mile (4790 feet) above sea level; has a maximum depth of 480 meters,
and is about 90 kilometers long by about 50 kilometers wide.
Ominously, it is estimated to contain 65 cubic kilometers of methane
and about four times that much carbon dioxide. There is compelling
drill-core evidence of multiple massive explosions in the last two
millenia. On the image above each dot represents an earthquake in the last 40 years.