Scientists are warning of a volcano risk if the proposed construction of a controversial soda ash factory at Lake Natron in Tanzania is allowed to go on. A report released by scientists said that Ol Doinyo Lengai, a volcanic mountain situated 14km from Lake Natron where the construction is planned to take place, shows signs of extreme instability."The area has experienced a series of earthquakes in the last few weeks & these do also represent a major hazard to the planned production site," said the report by Jurgis Klaudius, a volcanologist who has been studying the mountain. Eruptions at the active volcanic mountain have in the recent past been causing a spate of earthquakes in Tanzania reaching as far as Kenya. In the report, Klaudius said that "the actual crater area shows signs of extreme instability & any hazard evaluation has to consider the sudden failure." The report said that if an eruption occurs, at risk is a community of an estimated 10 to 20,000, which rely on their traditional life style entirely on cattle herding. "A major explosive eruption, with the magnitude of events as documented repeatedly for the last 2000 years, threatens to annihilate the basis for Maasai persistence in the Natron rift area, the rift shoulders of the Crater Highlands and the adjacent Serengeti plain," said their report.
