Top 10 Volcanoes in Chad
Deep in the Sahara of northern Chad rise the Tibesti Mountains, one of the most remote and least-explored volcanic regions on Earth. Here, in a vast desert far from any city, stand the highest volcanoes in the Sahara, including towering peaks, enormous calderas, and steaming craters that reveal the region is far from extinct. Here are ten of the most remarkable volcanoes of Chad, drawn from the extraordinary Tibesti massif.
Emi Koussi
Emi Koussi, reaching about 3,445 metres, is the highest peak in the Tibesti and the highest point in the entire Sahara. A vast shield volcano topped by a large caldera, it dominates the southern part of the range. Its great size and remote desert setting make it one of the most impressive volcanic landforms in Africa.
Tarso Voon
Tarso Voon is a large volcanic massif in the central Tibesti, reaching about 2,845 metres and crowned by a broad caldera. Within its complex lies a striking feature of ongoing geothermal activity, a reminder that the volcanism of the Tibesti, though quiet, is not entirely extinct.
Tousside
Tousside, a stratovolcano reaching about 3,296 metres, is one of the most prominent peaks of the western Tibesti and considered among the most likely to have erupted in relatively recent geological times. Near it lies the dramatic Trou au Natron, a vast explosion crater whose floor is encrusted with white natron salts.
Trou au Natron
The Trou au Natron, associated with the Tousside area, is one of the most spectacular features of the Tibesti: an enormous caldera-like crater plunging hundreds of metres deep, its floor coated in white sodium carbonate deposits and dotted with small cones. Steaming fumaroles testify to residual heat, making it a striking emblem of the region's volcanism.
Ehi Timi
Ehi Timi, a stratovolcano reaching about 3,012 metres, is another of the high peaks of the Tibesti massif. Like its neighbours, it rises from the vast desert plateau, contributing to the cluster of towering volcanic summits that make the Tibesti the roof of the Sahara.
Tarso Toon
Tarso Toon, reaching about 2,333 metres, is one of the broad volcanic plateaus, or tarsos, that characterise the Tibesti. These extensive volcanic highlands, built from lava and ash over a long history, form the elevated heart of the range and host many of its craters and cones.
Tarso Lango
Tarso Lango, at around 2,310 metres, is another of the volcanic plateaus of the Tibesti, contributing to the network of tarsos that make up much of the massif. These plateaus record the long effusive history of the region, their surfaces shaped by lava flows now weathered by the desert.
Pic Dohoni
Pic Dohoni, reaching about 2,666 metres, is one of the named peaks of the Tibesti, rising amid the volcanic plateaus and craters of the range. Its presence adds to the remarkable concentration of high volcanic summits that make this remote corner of the Sahara so geologically distinctive.
Gour
Gour, reaching about 2,260 metres, is among the volcanic features that punctuate the Tibesti landscape. Set within the vast and arid massif, it is one of the many peaks and cones that record the volcanic history of a region that remains, despite its remoteness, of great scientific interest.
Pombo
Pombo, at around 2,080 metres, is another of the volcanic summits scattered across the Tibesti massif. Together with the other peaks, plateaus, and craters of the range, it forms part of one of the most extensive and least-studied volcanic provinces of the African continent, hidden deep in the Sahara.
Explore on the map
From the Saharan summit of Emi Koussi to the steaming depths of the Trou au Natron, the volcanoes of Chad's Tibesti Mountains are among the most remote and remarkable in Africa. Explore them on the interactive map — filter by country to see Chad's volcanoes and to appreciate the hidden volcanism at the heart of the Sahara.