An explosive eruption from Kavachi volcano was seen from the Australian CSIRO research vessel Franklin on 14 May 2000. During their 20 hours of observations explosions were witnessed every 5-7 minutes, lasting 2-3 minutes each. The crater was estimated at 2-5 m below the water surface. The eruptions ejected ash and incandescent lava up to 70 m above the sea surface, and plumes rose to heights of 500 m. Kavachi had been erupting intermittently since November 1999.

Photo by Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organization (CSIRO), 2000.

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

Galleries: Submarine Volcanoes

Keywords: lava water interaction | submarine eruption | Surtseyan | plume | steam | gas

Kavachi