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Report on Additional Reports (Unknown) — January 1991


Additional Reports

Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, vol. 16, no. 1 (January 1991)
Managing Editor: Lindsay McClelland.

Additional Reports (Unknown) Fiji: No clear evidence of pumice despite aerial observations

Please cite this report as:

Global Volcanism Program, 1991. Report on Additional Reports (Unknown) (McClelland, L., ed.). Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, 16:1. Smithsonian Institution. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.GVP.BGVN199101-600500



Additional Reports

Unknown

Lat Unknown, Unknown; summit elev. m

All times are local (unless otherwise noted)


Airplane pilots observed what they believed to be floating pumice SW of Fiji 16-17 October, and pumice was initially reported to have come ashore at Koro Island in November. However, careful investigation by Fiji's Mineral Resources Department yielded no evidence of floating pumice in the region (Rodda and Jones, 1991). The "Koro Island" pumice report was in fact from Nacekoro (site of the airport at Savusavu, S-central Vanua Levu), and appears to have been an observation of older pumice, probably from the 1984 eruption of Home Reef. Mineral Resources Department personnel working in the NW (Yasawa Group) and S-central (Toyota Is) parts of Fiji in December saw no new drifting pumice, although a considerable quantity of Home Reef material remained on the backs of beaches. Telegrams requesting information about pumice, sent in late October to each of the four postal agencies in S Fiji, and 38 questionnaires sent to schools, postmasters, and shipping companies in S Fiji, yielded only a single negative response (from Oni-i-Lau, in the southern Lau Group). Responses had been received from 25% of similar inquiries after the arrival of pumice from the Home Reef eruption.

Reference. Rodda, P., and Jones, T.D., 1991, The 1990 reports of drift pumice in Fiji: Mineral Resources Department Note BP1/91, 3 p.

Geological Summary. Reports of floating pumice from an unknown source, hydroacoustic signals, or possible eruption plumes seen in satellite imagery.

Information Contacts: P. Rodda, Mineral Resources Dept, Suva, Fiji.