Report on Unnamed (Solomon Islands) — September 1992
Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, vol. 17, no. 9 (September 1992)
Managing Editor: Lindsay McClelland.
Unnamed (Solomon Islands) Thermal plumes detected over seamount crater
Please cite this report as:
Global Volcanism Program, 1992. Report on Unnamed (Solomon Islands) (McClelland, L., ed.). Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, 17:9. Smithsonian Institution. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.GVP.BGVN199209-255061
Unnamed
Solomon Islands
8.92°S, 158.03°E; summit elev. -240 m
All times are local (unless otherwise noted)
A bathymetric survey in the vicinity of Kavachi volcano was carried out on 11 August by the HMNZS Tui. The ship made three parallel transits, ~1,200 m apart, over the summit of the unnamed seamount ~7 km NW of Kavachi. The summit is mostly flat, with a depth of at least 130 m found on each pass. The transit farthest NE showed a shallow and a deep crater on the tracing of the 12 kHz echo sounder. The 44-kHz echo sounder showed two small plumes rising to mid-water depth on either side of the smaller crater.
Geological Summary. A seamount was mapped during a 1979 cruise about 9 km NE of Kavachi (Okugrin, 1985) that appeared to have been recently active; porphyritic and aphyric andesitic rocks were dredged from that location. Another seamount 7 km NW of Kavachi was capped by corals, and a small peak was noted on the SW flank of the seamount (see map after Okugrin, 1985, in Exon and Johnson, 1986).
Information Contacts: L. Hall, Defence Scientific Establishment, and Lt. Cdr. G. Craig, HMNZSTui, Auckland Naval Base, New Zealand.
