Logo link to homepage

Report on Tinakula (Solomon Islands) — March 2007


Tinakula

Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, vol. 32, no. 3 (March 2007)
Managing Editor: Richard Wunderman.

Tinakula (Solomon Islands) Thermal anomalies suggest eruptions, but field reports absent

Please cite this report as:

Global Volcanism Program, 2007. Report on Tinakula (Solomon Islands) (Wunderman, R., ed.). Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, 32:3. Smithsonian Institution. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.GVP.BGVN200703-256010



Tinakula

Solomon Islands

10.386°S, 165.804°E; summit elev. 796 m

All times are local (unless otherwise noted)


No thermal anomalies at Tinakula were detected by MODIS satellite systems between 9 May 2001 and 11 February 2006, but anomalies were then detected through mid-April 2006 (BGVN 31:03). Thermal anomalies continued at about the same pace and intensity (in pixels) through 1 June 2006 (table 2). From 4 August 2006 through March 2007, on 19 different days there were 1- or 2-pixel thermal anomalies measured by MODIS.

Table 2. MODIS/MODVOLC thermal anomalies at Tinakula for mid-April 2006 through mid-April 2007 (continued from table in BGVN 31:03). Courtesy of the University of Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) MODIS Hotspot Alert System.

Date Time (UTC) Pixels Satellite
14 Apr 2006 1135 1 Terra
16 Apr 2006 1125 2 Terra
16 Apr 2006 1425 1 Aqua
18 Apr 2006 1410 3 Aqua
19 Apr 2006 1155 3 Terra
19 Apr 2006 1455 1 Aqua
21 Apr 2006 1145 1 Terra
21 Apr 2006 1445 2 Aqua
23 Apr 2006 1130 1 Terra
25 Apr 2006 1420 2 Aqua
28 Apr 2006 1150 3 Terra
02 May 2006 1125 3 Terra
04 May 2006 1110 2 Terra
06 May 2006 1400 1 Terra
16 May 2006 1135 2 Terra
01 Jun 2006 1135 2 Terra
01 Jun 2006 1435 3 Aqua
04 Aug 2006 1135 1 Terra
30 Oct 2006 1145 1 Terra
08 Nov 2006 1135 2 Terra
08 Dec 2006 1450 1 Aqua
12 Dec 2006 1425 1 Aqua
19 Dec 2006 1435 1 Aqua
04 Jan 2007 1130 1 Terra
11 Jan 2007 1135 1 Terra
20 Jan 2007 1130 1 Terra
27 Jan 2007 1135 1 Terra
05 Feb 2007 1130 2 Terra
17 Feb 2007 1155 1 Terra
26 Feb 2007 1150 1 Terra
28 Feb 2007 1140 1 Terra
09 Mar 2007 1130 1 Terra
16 Mar 2007 1140 2 Terra
18 Mar 2007 1125 1 Terra
18 Mar 2007 1425 1 Aqua
20 Mar 2007 1415 1 Aqua
30 Mar 2007 1150 2 Terra

According to a 1994 summary by the Solomon Island observatory (World Organization of Volcanic Observatories, 1997), "The last reported large eruption was in 1985. Tinakula is highly active [and] erupts andesitic ash almost every week." No recent field observations have been made by scientists.

Reference. World Organization of Volcanic Observatories (WOVO), 1997, Volcanoes of the Solomon Islands. 1. Tinakula, (section 0505-07), in Netter, C., and Cheminée, J-L. (eds.), Directory of Volcano Observatories, 1996-1997: WOVO/IAVCEI/UNESCO, Paris, 50 p.

Geological Summary. The small 3.5-km-wide island of Tinakula is the exposed summit of a massive stratovolcano at the NW end of the Santa Cruz islands. It has a breached summit crater that extends from the summit to below sea level. Landslides enlarged this scarp in 1965, creating an embayment on the NW coast. The Mendana cone is located on the SE side. The dominantly andesitic volcano has frequently been observed in eruption since the era of Spanish exploration began in 1595. In about 1840, an explosive eruption apparently produced pyroclastic flows that swept all sides of the island, killing its inhabitants. Recorded eruptions have frequently originated from a cone constructed within the large breached crater. These have left the upper flanks and the steep apron of lava flows and volcaniclastic debris within the breach unvegetated.

Information Contacts: Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, MODIS Thermal Alert System, School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology (SOEST), University of Hawai'i, 2525 Correa Road, Honolulu, HI, USA (URL: http://modis.higp.hawaii.edu/); Solomon Island Observatory, Water and Mineral Resources Division, Honiara, Solomon Islands (URL: http://www.wovo.org/0505_07.htm).