Report on Lopevi (Vanuatu) — March 1986
Scientific Event Alert Network Bulletin, vol. 11, no. 3 (March 1986)
Managing Editor: Lindsay McClelland.
Lopevi (Vanuatu) Active fumaroles on cone; vapor plume from crater
Please cite this report as:
Global Volcanism Program, 1986. Report on Lopevi (Vanuatu) (McClelland, L., ed.). Scientific Event Alert Network Bulletin, 11:3. Smithsonian Institution. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.GVP.SEAN198603-257050
Lopevi
Vanuatu
16.507°S, 168.346°E; summit elev. 1413 m
All times are local (unless otherwise noted)
Richard Stoiber overflew Lopevi on 8 March. "A small white vapor plume was being emitted from the crater on 8 March. The most active fumaroles were high on the cone."
Geological Summary. The small 7-km-wide conical island of Lopevi, known locally as Vanei Vollohulu, is one of Vanuatu's most active volcanoes. A small summit crater containing a cinder cone is breached to the NW and tops an older cone that is rimmed by the remnant of a larger crater. The basaltic-to-andesitic volcano has been active during historical time at both summit and flank vents, primarily along a NW-SE-trending fissure that cuts across the island, producing moderate explosive eruptions and lava flows that reached the coast. Historical eruptions at the 1413-m-high volcano date back to the mid-19th century. The island was evacuated following major eruptions in 1939 and 1960. The latter eruption, from a NW-flank fissure vent, produced a pyroclastic flow that swept to the sea and a lava flow that formed a new peninsula on the western coast.
Information Contacts: R. Stoiber, Dartmouth College.
