Virunga Mountains

The Virunga Mountains form a chain of volcanoes along the Albertine Rift, spanning the borders of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda, and comprising eight major volcanic peaks including Karisimbi, Mikeno, Bisoke, Sabyinyo, Gahinga and Muhabura alongside the separately documented Nyiragongo and Nyamuragira. Most of the range's peaks are extinct or dormant stratovolcanoes and cinder cones built up from the same rift-related volcanism that produces the two active volcanoes at its northern end, while the older, higher peaks to the south, including Karisimbi, the range's tallest at about 4,507 meters, have not erupted in recorded history. The range's forested slopes span multiple climate zones from bamboo forest to Afromontane moorland and form one of the last strongholds of the mountain gorilla. This entity documents the Virunga Mountains specifically as a geological formation, a chain of rift-related volcanic peaks spanning the Congo-Rwanda-Uganda border.