Report on Jan Mayen (Norway) — March 1997
Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, vol. 22, no. 3 (March 1997)
Managing Editor: Richard Wunderman.
Jan Mayen (Norway) Weak fumaroles on the inner NE crater wall
Please cite this report as:
Global Volcanism Program, 1997. Report on Jan Mayen (Norway) (Wunderman, R., ed.). Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, 22:3. Smithsonian Institution. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.GVP.BGVN199703-376010
Jan Mayen
Norway
71.082°N, 8.155°W; summit elev. 2197 m
All times are local (unless otherwise noted)
On 6 April, members of an SVE excursion visited the volcano and reported only weak fumarolic activity. White steam rose a few meters above the inner low part of the NE crater wall.
Beerenberg is a large glacier-covered stratovolcano at the N end of Jan Mayen Island. Numerous cinder cones have erupted along flank fissures, the latest in 1985.
Geological Summary. Remote Jan Mayen Island, located in the Norwegian Sea along the Jan Mayen Ridge about 650 km NE of Iceland, consists of two volcanic complexes separated by a narrow isthmus. The large Beerenberg basaltic stratovolcano (Nord-Jan) forms the NE end of the 40-km-long island, which is ringed by high cliffs. The glacier-covered Beerenberg has a 1-km-wide summit crater and numerous cinder cones that were erupted along flank fissures. It is composed primarily of basaltic lava flows with minor amounts of tephra. Reported eruptions from Beerenberg date back to the 18th century. The SW tip of Jan Mayen contains the Holocene Sor-Jan cinder cones, tephra rings, and trachytic lava domes were erupted from short fissures with a NE-SW trend.
Information Contacts: Henry Gaudru, Michel Caplain, Alain Hirsh, and Yves Chetcuti, Société Volcanologique Européenne, C.P. 1, 1211 Genève 17, Switzerland (URL: http://www.sveurop.org/); Michel Halbwachs, Laboratoire d'Instrumentation Geophysique, University of Savoie, BP 1104, 73011 Chambery, France.