Members of SANE visited . . . in mid-Nov. Since July, the active cone had grown to ~320 m asl and its crater was estimated at 250-300 m in diameter [but see 17:1]. During the 2.5-hour visit, eleven secondary steam explosions occurred from the lava flow at the coast. Incandescent material was sometimes visible after waves struck the flow front. Some regrowth of scorched plants had occurred on the SW corner of the island, and birds had returned. Although no plume was evident from the ground in mid-Nov, three Indian Navy pilots observed fuming during a later overflight, and minor fuming from two vents was visible during fieldwork on 30 November.

Geological Summary. Barren Island, a possession of India in the Andaman Sea about 135 km NE of Port Blair in the Andaman Islands, is the only historically active volcano along the N-S volcanic arc extending between Sumatra and Burma (Myanmar). It is the emergent summit of a volcano that rises from a depth of about 2250 m. The small, uninhabited 3-km-wide island contains a roughly 2-km-wide caldera with walls 250-350 m high. The caldera, which is open to the sea on the west, was created during a major explosive eruption in the late Pleistocene that produced pyroclastic-flow and -surge deposits. Historical eruptions have changed the morphology of the pyroclastic cone in the center of the caldera, and lava flows that fill much of the caldera floor have reached the sea along the western coast.

Information Contacts: S. Acharya, SANE; D. Shackelford, Fullerton, CA.