Mount Lamington, seen here from the north in late 1951, has a 1.3-km-wide summit crater containing a lava dome. Prior to its disastrous eruption in 1951, the forested peak had not been recognized as a volcano. The 1951 eruption produced pyroclastic flows and surges that devastated all sides of the volcano, killing nearly 3,000 people. The eruption concluded with growth of a 560-m-high lava dome in the summit crater.

Photo by Tony Taylor, 1951 (courtesy of Wally Johnson, Australia Bureau of Mineral Resources).

Keywords: lava dome | plume | gas | emissions

Lamington