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Daily OMI satellite picture

Daily Vanuatu SO2 Coverage
(In partnership with GNS Science, NZ)


OMI pictures

09/09/2010
Ambrym

 

 Bembow, 2009
Volcano Name: Benbow, Marum, Mbwelesu, Niri Mbwelesu, Memben Mbwelesu  
  
Volcano Type:Pyroclastic shield 
Current Activity:Vanuatu Volcanic Alert Level 0 
Last Known Eruption:2009 
Summit Elevation:1334 m  4,377 feet 
Latitude: 16.25°S16°15'0"S 
Longitude: 168.12°E168°7'0"E
 
 
Ambrym, a large basaltic volcano with a 12-km-wide caldera, is one of the most active volcanoes of Vanuatu. A thick, almost exclusively pyroclastic sequence, initially dacitic, then basaltic, overlies lava flows of a pre-caldera shield volcano. The caldera was formed during a major plinian eruption with dacitic pyroclastic flows about 1900 years ago. Post-caldera eruptions, primarily from Marum and Benbow cones, have partially filled the caldera floor and produced lava flows that ponded on the caldera floor or overflowed through gaps in the caldera rim. Post-caldera eruptions have also formed a series of scoria cones and maars along a fissure system oriented ENE-WSW. Eruptions have apparently occurred almost yearly during historical time from cones within the caldera or from flank vents. However, from 1850 to 1950, reporting was mostly limited to extra-caldera eruptions that would have affected local populations.

 

 

(Partially sourced from the Global Volcanism Program Website)

 

 

Current Geophysical Monitoring Network: TBF

 

 

Publications: TBF