Volcano World

This volcanic field consists of over seventy-eight explosion craters that cover an area of around eighty square miles (333 Sq.B km). These craters can vary in size for a few hundred meters in diameter to over a kilometer. The rims of these craters often overlap and make it hard to determine crater size and number. The resulting patterns and unique landscape when seen from the air look like the surface of the moon. Older circular pits scattered within the area are mostly filled with dust and ash, resulting in shallow floors often only a few tens of meters deep. The younger pits have much steeper rims and crater walls from one to two hundred meters deep. Some of these pits have thick forests within them. Seven of the craters have saltwater lakes.

These craters, called maars, were produced by violant explosions of volcanic gases and steam at or near the surface. This activity occured over a very short period of time - some explosions being almost simultaneous. No lava flows occur except for three small ones.

Source of Information:

Matthew, P.E. 1953 The Katwe-Kikorongo Explosion Craters in the Queen Elizabeth National Park, Toro, Uganda; Geological Survey of Uganda; PEM/10 Report.