Global Volcanism Program | Northeast Shepherd Islands

The Global Volcanism Program has no activity reports available for Northeast Shepherd Islands.

The Global Volcanism Program has no Weekly Reports available for Northeast Shepherd Islands.

The Global Volcanism Program has no Bulletin Reports available for Northeast Shepherd Islands.

Basic Data

Volcano Number

Last Known Eruption

Elevation

Latitude
Longitude

257080

Pleistocene

513 m / 1,683 ft

17.0007°S
168.636°E

Morphology

Volcano Landform
Composite

Volcano Types
Stratovolcano(es)
Caldera(?)

Rock Types

Major
Basalt / Picro-Basalt
Dacite

Tectonic Setting

Subduction zone
Intermediate crust (15-25 km)

Population

Within 5 km
Within 10 km
Within 30 km
Within 100 km

1,101
1,972
6,407
69,711

Geological Summary

This group of small islands (Ewose, Buninga, and Tongariki) SE of Tongoa Island have no obvious volcanic features. Although it has been suggested that they lie on the rim of a caldera (Crawford et al. 1988, Macfarlane et al. 1988), no evidence for such a feature was found by Eissen et al. (1991). Buninga and Tongariki appear to be the exposed parts of a submarine edifice that extends towards Emae island, 15 km SW. Pyroclastic rocks intruded by dikes are exposed on Ewose, whereas Buninga is largely composed of tilted lava flows. Tongariki consists of basalts with dacitic pumiceous tuffs in low-lying areas.

References

The following references have all been used during the compilation of data for this volcano, it is not a comprehensive bibliography.

Beier C, Brandl P A, Lima S M, Haase K M, 2018. Tectonic control on the genesis of magmas in the New Hebrides arc (Vanuatu). Lithos, v. 312–313, p. 290-307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lithos.2018.05.011

Crawford A J, Greene H G, Exon N F, 1988. Geology, petrology and geochemistry of submarine volcanoes around Epi Island, New Hebrides island arc. In: Greene H G and Wong F L (eds) Geology and Offshore Resources of Pacific Island Arcs--Vanuatu Region, Circum-Pacific Council Energy Min Resour Earth Sci Ser, 8: 301-327.

Eissen J-P, Blot C, Louat R, 1991. Chronologie de l'activite volcanique historique de l'arc insulaire des Nouvelles-Hebrides de 1595 a 1991. ORSTOM Rapports Sci Tech Sci Terre Geol-Geophys, 2: 1-69.

Macfarlane A, Carney J N, Crawford A J, Greene H G, 1988. Vanuatu--A review of the onshore geology. In: Greene H G and Wong F L (eds) Geology and Offshore Resources of Pacific Island Arcs--Vanuatu Region, Circum-Pacific Council Energy Min Resour Earth Sci Ser, 8: 45-91.

Warden A J, 1967. The geology of the Central Islands. New Hebrides Condominium Geol Surv Reg Rpt, 5: 1-108.

Eruptive History

The Global Volcanism Program is not aware of any Holocene eruptions from Northeast Shepherd Islands. If this volcano has had large eruptions (VEI >= 4) prior to 12,000 years ago, information might be found on the Northeast Shepherd Islands page in the LaMEVE (Large Magnitude Explosive Volcanic Eruptions) database, a part of the Volcano Global Risk Identification and Analysis Project (VOGRIPA).

The Global Volcanism Program has no synonyms or subfeatures listed for Northeast Shepherd Islands.

Photo Gallery

The NE Shepherd Islands group is south of Tongoa Island in Vanuatu and is shown in this 10 August 2020 PlanetScope satellite image (N is at the top). The islands are the northernmost, 2.8-km-long Ewose, Falea in the center, Tongariki to the SE, and Buninga to the SW. The islands contain outcrops of lava flows, pyroclastic deposits, and dikes.

Satellite image courtesy of Planet Labs Inc., 2020 (https://www.planet.com/).

Smithsonian Sample Collections Database

There are no samples for Northeast Shepherd Islands in the Smithsonian's NMNH Department of Mineral Sciences Rock and Ore collection.

External Sites

Copernicus Browser

The Copernicus Browser replaced the Sentinel Hub Playground browser in 2023, to provide access to Earth observation archives from the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem, the main distribution platform for data from the EU Copernicus missions.

WOVOdat
   Single Volcano View
   Temporal Evolution of Unrest
   Side by Side Volcanoes

WOVOdat is a database of volcanic unrest; instrumentally and visually recorded changes in seismicity, ground deformation, gas emission, and other parameters from their normal baselines. It is sponsored by the World Organization of Volcano Observatories (WOVO) and presently hosted at the Earth Observatory of Singapore.

GVMID Data on Volcano Monitoring Infrastructure The Global Volcano Monitoring Infrastructure Database GVMID, is aimed at documenting and improving capabilities of volcano monitoring from the ground and space. GVMID should provide a snapshot and baseline view of the techniques and instrumentation that are in place at various volcanoes, which can be use by volcano observatories as reference to setup new monitoring system or improving networks at a specific volcano. These data will allow identification of what monitoring gaps exist, which can be then targeted by remote sensing infrastructure and future instrument deployments.

IRIS seismic stations/networks

Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) Data Services map showing the location of seismic stations from all available networks (permanent or temporary) within a radius of 0.18° (about 20 km at mid-latitudes) from the given location of Northeast Shepherd Islands. Users can customize a variety of filters and options in the left panel. Note that if there are no stations are known the map will default to show the entire world with a "No data matched request" error notice.

UNAVCO GPS/GNSS stations

Geodetic Data Services map from UNAVCO showing the location of GPS/GNSS stations from all available networks (permanent or temporary) within a radius of 20 km from the given location of Northeast Shepherd Islands. Users can customize the data search based on station or network names, location, and time window. Requires Adobe Flash Player.

EarthChem

EarthChem develops and maintains databases, software, and services that support the preservation, discovery, access and analysis of geochemical data, and facilitate their integration with the broad array of other available earth science parameters. EarthChem is operated by a joint team of disciplinary scientists, data scientists, data managers and information technology developers who are part of the NSF-funded data facility Integrated Earth Data Applications (IEDA). IEDA is a collaborative effort of EarthChem and the Marine Geoscience Data System (MGDS).