Report on Yasur (Vanuatu) — 7 January-13 January 2009
Smithsonian Institution / US Geological Survey
Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 7 January-13 January 2009
Managing Editor: Sally Sennert.
Please cite this report as:
Global Volcanism Program, 2009. Report on Yasur (Vanuatu) (Sennert, S, ed.). Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 7 January-13 January 2009. Smithsonian Institution and US Geological Survey.
Yasur
Vanuatu
19.532°S, 169.447°E; summit elev. 361 m
All times are local (unless otherwise noted)
Based on a pilot observation, the Wellington VAAC reported that an ash plume from Yasur rose to an altitude of 4 km (13,000 ft) a.s.l. and drifted SE. Ash was not identified on satellite imagery.
Geological Summary. Yasur has exhibited essentially continuous Strombolian and Vulcanian activity at least since Captain Cook observed ash eruptions in 1774. This style of activity may have continued for the past 800 years. Located at the SE tip of Tanna Island in Vanuatu, this pyroclastic cone has a nearly circular, 400-m-wide summit crater. The active cone is largely contained within the small Yenkahe caldera, and is the youngest of a group of Holocene volcanic centers constructed over the down-dropped NE flank of the Pleistocene Tukosmeru volcano. The Yenkahe horst is located within the Siwi ring fracture, a 4-km-wide open feature associated with eruption of the andesitic Siwi pyroclastic sequence. Active tectonism along the Yenkahe horst accompanying eruptions has raised Port Resolution harbor more than 20 m during the past century.
