Integrating Geodynamics, Hazards, and Resources from Mantle Plume to Societal Risk: The Case of The Cameroon Volcanic Line

The Cameroon Volcanic Line (CVL) is one of the most distinctive intra-plate magmatic provinces on Earth. Stretching more than 1,600 km from Annobón Island in the Gulf of Guinea across the continent-ocean boundary and into the African continental interior as far as Lake Chad, it presents a linear chain of volcanoes that lacks any systematic age progression. This absence of a migration pattern challenges the classical mantle plume model and keeps open fundamental questions about the geodynamic forces driving the chain, including edge-driven convection, lithospheric architecture, and the role of the Central African Shear Zone. In this respect, the CVL serves as a natural laboratory for some of the most contested questions in intra-plate geodynamics, questions equally relevant to analogous provinces such as the East African Rift, the Canary Islands, and the Deccan Traps.

The CVL’s magmatic character is equally distinctive. Erupted lavas span a wide compositional range, from primitive basanites and basalts to evolved trachytes, rhyolites, and phonolites. Open-conduit systems such as Mount Cameroon produce strictly mafic lavas, while several major centers show pronounced bimodal suites with a well-developed Daly gap. Geochemically, the chain displays a broad uniformity in major and trace element characteristics consistent with ocean island basalt sources, yet select volcanoes carry anomalously radiogenic lead isotope ratios (high ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb) reminiscent of HIMU-type mantle reservoirs. The nature of the mantle source beneath the CVL, and the origin of this localized HIMU signature, remain actively debated.

At the surface, the CVL spans a remarkable range of volcanic landforms, from large polygenetic massifs to thousands of monogenetic features including scoria cones and maar lakes. Two of those maar lakes, Monoun (1984) and Nyos (1986), experienced catastrophic limnic eruptions of dissolved CO2 that killed more than 1,800 people and 3,000 livestock. These events highlight the direct societal stakes of understanding the CVL’s subsurface gas systems. At the same time, the line hosts significant resources: geothermal energy potential, fertile volcanic soils, and mineral springs that already contribute to regional livelihoods.

This Research Topic consolidates multidisciplinary research on the CVL around three interconnected challenges. First, resolving the origin and lithosphere-mantle dynamics of the chain, given the absence of age progression, shared geochemistry across volcanoes, and localized HIMU-like isotopic signatures. Second, reducing volcanic and gas-disaster risk for the growing communities living alongside the line’s volcanoes and maar lakes. Third, supporting the sustainable use of the CVL’s volcanic resources to improve living standards across the region.

We welcome Original Research, Reviews, Mini Reviews, and Perspective articles from researchers working on the CVL and from those working on comparable intra-plate systems who wish to use the CVL as a reference frame or contribute comparative perspectives. Themes of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Deep Earth and Magmatic Systems: Petrology, petrogenesis, geochronology, and the evolution of mantle and lithospheric structures including Congo Craton boundaries and shear zones.

• Geophysics and Structural Geology: Seismology, structural mapping, and geophysical imaging of tectonic-magmatic interactions.

• Volcanology and Surface Processes: Physical volcanology, monogenetic and polygenetic systems, explosive hydrovolcanism, and landslide dynamics.

• Gas Hazards and Limnic Dynamics: Mechanics of CO2 degassing, limnic eruptions at Lakes Nyos and Monoun, and fluid geochemistry.

• Monitoring and Remote Sensing: Satellite observations, ground-based sensor networks, and real-time volcano-seismic monitoring.

• Resources and Sustainable Development: Geothermal reservoir assessment, critical mineral resources, and management of fertile volcanic soils.

• Comparative Intra-plate Volcanism: Studies from analogous systems such as the East African Rift, Canary Islands, and Cape Verde that contextualise CVL geodynamics, hazard frameworks, or resource management approaches.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Cameroon volcanic Line, Limnic eruption, HIMU, Lithosphere-Mantle, Intraplate volcanism, lithosphere-mantle interaction, volcanic hazards, geothermal resources, intra-plate geodynamics, maar lake gas hazards, mantle heterogeneity, monogenetic volcanism, African geology

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.