A shallow phreatomagmatic, or Surtseyan eruption from Kavachi volcano on 17 or 18 July 1977. Jets of dark ash can be seen emerging from white steam plumes. Numerous individual blocks ejected at high velocity are trailed by steam. Similar activity was observed from boats and airplanes for a period of less than one week.

Photo by W.G. Muller, 1977 (Barrier Reef Cruises, Queensland, Australia; courtesy of R.W. Johnson).

This image is made available under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 license terms.

Galleries: Submarine Volcanoes

Keywords: eruption | lava water interaction | Surtseyan | pyroclastic surge | explosive eruption | phreatomagmatic | cock’s-tail plume | submarine volcano

Kavachi