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Kavachi

Coordinates: 9°1′0″S 157°57′0″E / 9.01667°S 157.95000°E / -9.01667; 157.95000
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Kavachi
Kavachi erupting on May 14, 2000
Highest point
Elevation−20 m (−66 ft)
Coordinates9°1′0″S 157°57′0″E / 9.01667°S 157.95000°E / -9.01667; 157.95000
Geography
Map
LocationSolomon Islands
Geology
Mountain typeSubmarine volcano
Volcanic arc/beltBougainville & Solomon Is.
Last eruptionJanuary 2014[1]

Kavachi is one of the most active submarine volcanoes in the south-west Pacific Ocean.[2] Located south of Vangunu Island in the Solomon Islands, it is named after a sea god of the New Georgia Group islanders, and is also referred to locally as Rejo te Kavachi ("Kavachi's oven’). The volcano has become emergent and then been eroded back into the sea at least eight times since its first recorded eruption in 1939.[3]

In May 2000, an international research team aboard the CSIRO research vessel FRANKLIN fixed the position of the volcano at 8° 59.65'S, 157° 58.23'E. At that time the vent of the volcano was below sea level, but frequent eruptions ejected molten lava up to 70 metres (230 feet) above sea level, and sulfurous steam plumes up to 500 metres (1,600 feet). The team mapped a roughly conical feature rising from 1,100 metres (3,600 feet) water depth, with the volcano having a basal diameter of about 8 kilometres (5.0 miles).[4][5]

When the volcano erupted in 2003, a 15-metre-high (49-foot) island formed above the surface, but it disappeared soon after. Additional eruptive activity was observed and reported in March 2004 and April 2007.[6][7]

In 2015, marine wildlife has been found living inside the Kavachi crater, including two species of sharks and a sixgill stingray.[8]


See also

References

  1. ^ "Kavachi". Global Volcanism Program. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2010-02-26.
  2. ^ "Kavachi". Global Volcanism Program. Smithsonian Institution.
  3. ^ "Kavachi - Eruptive History". Global Volcanism Program. Smithsonian Institution.
  4. ^ "Fiery birth of new Pacific Island". Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). 24 May 2000.
  5. ^ "Volcano Island Born". All Things Considered. US National Public Radio. 26 May 2000.
  6. ^ "Kavachi - Monthly Reports". Global Volcanism Program. Smithsonian Institution.
  7. ^ "Kavachi Submarine Volcano". Corey Howell, The Wilderness Lodge.
  8. ^ "Sharks Discovered Inside Underwater Volcano".

Further reading

  • Baker, E.T., Massoth, G.J., de Ronde, C.E.J., Lupton, J.E., Lebon, G., and McInnes, B.I.A. 2002. Observations and sampling of an ongoing subsurface eruption of Kavachi volcano, Solomon Islands, May 2000, Geology, 30 (11), 975-978. (geology.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/reprint/30/11/975.pdf)
  • Dunkley, P.M., 1983. Volcanism and the evolution of the ensimatic Solomon Islands Arc, in Shimozuro, D. And Yokoyama, I.,(eds.), Arc Volcanism: Physics and Tectonics. Tokyo, Terrapub, 225-241.
  • Johnson, R.W. and Tuni, D. 1987. Kavachi, an active forearc volcano in the western Solomon Islands: Reported eruptions between 1950 and 1982, in B. Taylor and N.F. Exon, (eds.), 1987, Marine Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry of the Woodlark Basin-Solomon Islands, Circum-Pacific Council for Energy and Mineral Resources Earth Science Series, v. 7: Houston, Texas, Circum-Pacific Council for Energy and Mineral Resources.


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