Fire Mountains of the Islands : A History of Volcanic Eruptions and Disaster Management in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands

Johnson, R. Wally

doi:10.26530/oapen_462202

Cited by 15 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…A field visit by K. Sapper, the German volcanologist, in July 1908 occurred a few days after volcanic activity. From these, albeit limited, observations, the activity of Bagana during the century between 1842 and 1943 seems to have been similar to that of the behaviour recorded later (Bultitude, 1981, Johnson, 2013: slow-moving lava flows lasting years, near-continuous plumes of volcanic gas and occasional tephra with much more infrequent large explosions and PDCs.…”

Section: Eruptive Historysupporting

confidence: 63%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Persistent growth of a young andesite lava cone: Bagana volcano, Papua New Guinea

Wadge

McCormick

Edmonds

et al. 2018

Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Bagana, an andesite lava cone on Bougainville Island, Papua New Guinea, is thought to be a very young central volcano. We have tested this idea by estimating the volumes of lava extruded over different time intervals (1-, 2-, 3-, 9-, 15-, 70-years) using digital elevation models (DEMs), mainly created from satellite data. Our results show that the long-term extrusion rate at Bagana, measured over years to decades, has remained at about 1.0 m 3 s -1 . We present models of the total edifice volume, and show that, if our measured extrusion rates are representative, the volcano could have been built in only ~300 years. It could also possibly have been built at a slower rate during a longer, earlier period of growth. Six kilometres NNW of Bagana, an andesite-dacite volcano, Billy Mitchell, had a large, caldera-forming plinian eruption 437 years ago. We consider the possibility that, as a result of this eruption, the magma supply was diverted from Billy Mitchell to Bagana. It seems that Bagana is a rare example of a very youthful, polygenetic, andesite volcano. The characteristics of such a volcano, based on the example of Bagana, are: a preponderance of lava products over pyroclastic products, a high rate of lava extrusion maintained for decades, a very high rate of SO 2 emission, evidence of magma batch fractionation and location in a trans-tensional setting at the end of an arc segment above a very steeply dipping and rapidly converging subduction zone 2

show abstract

Section: Eruptive Historysupporting

confidence: 63%

“…The first reports of Bagana as a volcano were based on observations from ships in the 1800s (Bultitude, 1981, Johnson, 2013. The distinctive channelised surface of the volcano was first reported as "numerous furrows and channels" by J.P. Wilson of the ship Gypsy in 1842.…”

Section: Eruptive Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Persistent growth of a young andesite lava cone: Bagana volcano, Papua New Guinea

Wadge

McCormick

Edmonds

et al. 2018

Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In 1960, the entire population of Lopevi island (Vanuatu) moved to nearby islands because of the recurrent danger: Lopevi is only Pacific island to have been depopulated through volcanic activity. After the forced removal in 1954 of the entire population of Bam Island (PNG) because of volcanic eruption, so many people succumbed to illness, malnutrition, malaise and death that the government allowed them to return despite continuing volcanic activity (Johnson ). In 1981, Pagan (Northern Marianas) erupted and the population of less than a hundred was resettled on Saipan, alongside even smaller populations from nearby Alamagan and Agrihan islands.…”

Section: Pacific Resettlementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…After the evacuation to the mainland in 1958, Australian officials were impressed with how accommodating mainlanders were towards the Manams. (Johnson ). The islanders then remained on the mainland for just six months, some returning even sooner.…”

Section: From Temporary Humanitarian Aid To Permanent Limbo: the Manamentioning

confidence: 99%

Escaping Zaria's fire? The volcano resettlement problem of Manam Island, Papua New Guinea

Connell

Lutkehaus

2017

Asia Pacific Viewpoint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Most resettlement in the Pacific, whether for political, economic or environmental reasons, has been in some respects unsuccessful, often resulting in land disputes, social conflicts, marginalisation, impoverishment and return migration. Resettlement after volcanic eruption poses particular problems because of necessary immediacy, temporal uncertainty over the duration of the displacement and the wish of most of those displaced to return, when possible. The eruption of the Manam Island volcano in 2004-2005 displaced over 9000 people to the nearby mainland. Successful resettlement, one of the largest necessitated in the Pacific region, has proved difficult, resulting in land disputes, violence, disease and inertia, as a consequence of 10 years of government inability to achieve a permanent resettlement plan or enact a plan. Despite formal opposition, and intermittent volcanicity, many Manams have chosen to return to the island. The Manam Islanders' experience provides a warning about the complex challenges inherent in population resettlement in only subtly different cultural, geographical and political contexts.

show abstract

“…Numerous volcanic crises have proven that the lack of monitoring capabilities can have dramatic consequences when violent events occur at remote volcanoes with little or no monitoring in place. Notable historical examples include Lamington, Papua New Guinea, 1951 [7,8] and El Chichon, Mexico, 1982 [9,10] but the potential for such unexpected and destructive events still persists.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping Recent Shoreline Changes Spanning the Lateral Collapse of Anak Krakatau Volcano, Indonesia

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We use satellite imagery to investigate the shoreline changes associated with volcanic activity in 2018–2019 at Anak Krakatau, Indonesia, spanning a major lateral collapse and period of regrowth through explosive activity. The shoreline changes have been analyzed and validated through the adaptation of an existing methodology based on Sentinel-2 multispectral imagery and developed on Google Earth Engine. This work tests the results of this method in a highly dynamic volcanic environment and validates them with manually digitized shorelines. The analysis shows that the size of the Anak Krakatau Island increased from 2.84 km2 to 3.19 km2 during 15 May 2018–1 November 2019 despite the loss of area in the 22 December 2018 lateral collapse. The lateral collapse reduced the island area to ~1.5 km2 but this was followed by a rapid increase in area in the first two months of 2019, reaching up to 3.27 km2. This was followed by a period of little change as volcanic activity declined and then by a net decrease from May 2019 to 1 November 2019 that resulted from erosion on the SW side of the island. This history of post-collapse eruptive regrowth and coastal erosion derived from the shoreline changes illuminates the potential for satellite-based automated shoreline mapping to provide databases for monitoring remote island volcanoes.

show abstract

Fire Mountains of the Islands : A History of Volcanic Eruptions and Disaster Management in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands

Cited by 15 publications

References 11 publications

Persistent growth of a young andesite lava cone: Bagana volcano, Papua New Guinea

Persistent growth of a young andesite lava cone: Bagana volcano, Papua New Guinea

Escaping Zaria's fire? The volcano resettlement problem of Manam Island, Papua New Guinea

Mapping Recent Shoreline Changes Spanning the Lateral Collapse of Anak Krakatau Volcano, Indonesia

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About