Global Volcanism Program | Tristan da Cunha

The Global Volcanism Program has no activity reports for Tristan da Cunha.

The Global Volcanism Program has no Weekly Reports available for Tristan da Cunha.

The Global Volcanism Program has no Bulletin Reports available for Tristan da Cunha.

This compilation of synonyms and subsidiary features may not be comprehensive. Features are organized into four major categories: Cones, Craters, Domes, and Thermal Features. Synonyms of features appear indented below the primary name. In some cases additional feature type, elevation, or location details are provided.

Cones

Feature Name

Feature Type

Elevation

Latitude

Longitude

Big Green Hill

Pyroclastic cone

Burnthill

Pyroclastic cone

Cave Gulch Hill

Pyroclastic cone

Hill Piece

Tuff cone

Kipuka Hill

Pyroclastic cone

Nellie's Hump

Pyroclastic cone

Olaf

Cone

Queen Mary

Pyroclastic cone

2060 m

37° 5' 28" S

12° 17' 0" W

Stony Beach Hills

Pyroclastic cone

Stony Hill Group

Pyroclastic cone

Domes

Feature Name

Feature Type

Elevation

Latitude

Longitude

Stony Hill

Dome

Basic Data

Volcano Number

Last Known Eruption

Elevation

Latitude
Longitude

386010

1962 CE

2060 m / 6757 ft

37.092°S
12.28°W

Volcano Types

Shield
Pyroclastic cone(s)
Lava dome(s)

Rock Types

Major
Trachybasalt / Tephrite Basanite
Basalt / Picro-Basalt
Trachyandesite / Basaltic Trachyandesite
Trachyte / Trachydacite

Minor
Phonolite

Tectonic Setting

Rift zone
Oceanic crust (< 15 km)

Population

Within 5 km
Within 10 km
Within 30 km
Within 100 km

12
12
12
32

Geological Summary

Tristan da Cunha is a 13-km-wide island volcano lying about 500 km east of the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge just south of the latitudes of Buenos Aires and Cape Town. The 2060-m-high shield volcano is bounded on most sides by high cliffs. Lava flows dominate both the low-angle base and the steep upper flanks, although pyroclastic cones ringing the central cone are scattered around the lower flanks. Eruptions have occurred from the 300-m-wide summit crater, Queen Mary's Peak, which contains a small lake, and from numerous flank vents, some of which occurred from radial fissures. Radial dike swarms are prominently exposed on all sides of the island. Numerous strombolian cinder cones occur on the flanks of the volcano along both concentric ring structures and NNW- and ENE-trending radial fissures. The only historical eruption on Tristan da Cunha occurred during 1961 from a northshore vent and forced the evacuation of the island's only settlement.

References

The following references have all been used during the compilation of data for this volcano, it is not a comprehensive bibliography.

Baker P E, Gass I G, Harris P G, LeMaitre R W, 1964. Vulcanological report on the Royal Society expedition to Tristan de Cunha. Phil Trans Roy Soc London, 256: 439-578.

Chevallier L, Verwoerd W J, 1987. A dynamic interpretation of Tristan da Cunha volcano, South Atlantic Ocean. J Volc Geotherm Res, 34: 35-49.

IAVCEI, 1973-80. Post-Miocene Volcanoes of the World. IAVCEI Data Sheets, Rome: Internatl Assoc Volc Chemistry Earth's Interior..

Neumann van Padang M, Richards A F, Machado F, Bravo T, Baker P E, Le Maitre R W, 1967. Atlantic Ocean. Catalog of Active Volcanoes of the World and Solfatara Fields, Rome: IAVCEI, 21: 1-128.

Eruptive History

There is data available for 2 Holocene eruptive periods.

Start Date	Stop Date	Eruption Certainty	VEI	Evidence	Activity Area or Unit
1961 Oct 10	1962 Mar 15	Confirmed	2	Historical Observations	North flank
1700 ± 50 years	Unknown	Confirmed		Tephrochronology	South flank

Deformation History

There is no Deformation History data available for Tristan da Cunha.

Emission History

There is no Emissions History data available for Tristan da Cunha.

Photo Gallery

The HMS Challenger lies off Tristan da Cunha island in this 1878 plate from "The Voyage of the Challenger." This converted military vessel was outfitted for scientific surveys and circumnavigated the globe during a three and half year journey. A central volcano rises above steep coastal cliffs that truncate lava flows. Pyroclastic cones dot the flanks of the volcano.

Plate from Thomson, 1878 (courtesy of NOAA Photo Library).

The SW side of Tristan da Cunha volcano rises above the southern Atlantic seas. The 2060-m-high summit cone towers above high cliffs that bound most sides of the 13-km-wide island. Lava flows dominate both the low-angle base and the steep upper flanks, although pyroclastic cones ringing the central cone are scattered around the lower flanks. The only historical eruption on Tristan da Cunha occurred during 1961 from a northshore vent and forced the evacuation of the island's only settlement.

Photo by Vicky Hards, 2004 (British Geological Survey, copyrighted NERC).

A lava flow extends to the sea from a small lava dome formed during the first historical eruption of Tristan da Cunha in 1961-1962. The flow is seen here from the SW with the island's only habited area, the village of Settlement (Edinburgh of the Seven Seas), in the foreground. The eruption began on October 10, 1961 and prompted the evacuation of the island's entire population to England. The eruption ended on March 15, 1962, and resettlement began in September of that year.

Photo by Vicky Hards, 2004 (British Geological Survey, copyrighted NERC).

This pumice block, with a one-pound coin for scale, was collected from the sea surface near Tristan da Cunha on August 3, 2004. An earthquake swarm lasting 6 hours beginning on July 29, 2004 was followed by the observation of large blocks of floating pumice. The event was considered to have originated from rising magma 25 km SE of Tristan.

Photo by Vicky Hards, 2004 (British Geological Survey, copyrighted NERC).

Smithsonian Sample Collections Database

The following 7 samples associated with this volcano can be found in the Smithsonian's NMNH Department of Mineral Sciences collections, and may be availble for research (contact the Rock and Ore Collections Manager). Catalog number links will open a window with more information.

Catalog Number	Sample Description	Lava Source	Collection Date
NMNH 110014	Trachyandesite	--	--
NMNH 110015	Trachyandesite	--	--
NMNH 110016	Trachyandesite	--	--
NMNH 110017	Olivine Basalt	--	--
NMNH 110018	Olivine Basalt	--	--
NMNH 110019	Basalt	--	--
NMNH 110020	Basalt	--	--

Affiliated Sites

DECADE Data

The DECADE portal, still in the developmental stage, serves as an example of the proposed interoperability between The Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program, the MAGA Database, and the EarthChem Geochemical Portal. The Deep Earth Carbon Degassing (DECADE) initiative seeks to use new and established technologies to determine accurate global fluxes of volcanic CO₂ to the atmosphere, but installing CO₂ monitoring networks on 20 of the world's 150 most actively degassing volcanoes. The group uses related laboratory-based studies (direct gas sampling and analysis, melt inclusions) to provide new data for direct degassing of deep earth carbon to the atmosphere.

WOVOdat
   Single Volcano View
   Temporal Evolution of Unrest
   Side by Side Volcanoes

WOVOdat is a database of volcanic unrest; instrumentally and visually recorded changes in seismicity, ground deformation, gas emission, and other parameters from their normal baselines. It is sponsored by the World Organization of Volcano Observatories (WOVO) and presently hosted at the Earth Observatory of Singapore.

Large Eruptions of Tristan da Cunha

Information about large Quaternary eruptions (VEI >= 4) is cataloged in the Large Magnitude Explosive Volcanic Eruptions (LaMEVE) database of the Volcano Global Risk Identification and Analysis Project (VOGRIPA).

MIROVA

Middle InfraRed Observation of Volcanic Activity (MIROVA) is a near real time volcanic hot-spot detection system based on the analysis of MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) data. In particular, MIROVA uses the Middle InfraRed Radiation (MIR), measured over target volcanoes, in order to detect, locate and measure the heat radiation sourced from volcanic activity.

MODVOLC Thermal Alerts

Using infrared satellite Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data, scientists at the Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawai'i, developed an automated system called MODVOLC to map thermal hot-spots in near real time. For each MODIS image, the algorithm automatically scans each 1 km pixel within it to check for high-temperature hot-spots. When one is found the date, time, location, and intensity are recorded. MODIS looks at every square km of the Earth every 48 hours, once during the day and once during the night, and the presence of two MODIS sensors in space allows at least four hot-spot observations every two days. Each day updated global maps are compiled to display the locations of all hot spots detected in the previous 24 hours. There is a drop-down list with volcano names which allow users to 'zoom-in' and examine the distribution of hot-spots at a variety of spatial scales.

EarthChem

EarthChem develops and maintains databases, software, and services that support the preservation, discovery, access and analysis of geochemical data, and facilitate their integration with the broad array of other available earth science parameters. EarthChem is operated by a joint team of disciplinary scientists, data scientists, data managers and information technology developers who are part of the NSF-funded data facility Integrated Earth Data Applications (IEDA). IEDA is a collaborative effort of EarthChem and the Marine Geoscience Data System (MGDS).