Langila, New Britain, Papua New Guinea

Location: 5.52S, 148.42E
Elevation: 1,330 m (4,363 feet)
Last Updated: May 13, 2005

Langila, one of the most active volcanoes of New Britain, consists of a group of four small overlapping composite cones on the lower eastern flank of the extinct Talawe volcano. Steam rises on September 4 from Craters 2 (left) and 3 (right) during a 1970 eruption. The rim of Crater 1 forms the center horizon in this view from the NW. Frequent mild-to-moderate explosive eruptions, sometimes accompanied by lava flows, have been recorded since the 19th century from the three active craters at the summit of Langila.
Photo by Wally Johnson, 1970 (Australia Bureau of Mineral Resources).

Langila, one of the most active volcanoes of New Britain, consists of a group of four small overlapping composite basaltic-andesitic cones on the lower eastern flank of the extinct Talawe volcano. Talawe is the highest volcano in the Cape Gloucester area of NW New Britain. A rectangular, 2.5-km-long crater is breached widely to the SE; Langila volcano was constructed NE of the breached crater of Talawe. An extensive lava field reaches the coast on the north and NE sides of Langila. Frequent mild-to-moderate explosive eruptions, sometimes accompanied by lava flows, have been recorded since the 19th century from three active craters at the summit of Langila. The youngest and smallest crater (no. 3 crater) was formed in 1960 and has a diameter of 150 m. (Description from the SI/USGS Global Volcanism Program).

Location of volcanoes Langila, New Britain.
From Fisher (1957).

Volcanoes of the eastern part of the western arc, south Bismarck Sea.
From Ball and Johnson (1976).

Explosion on October 25, 1985 at Langila volcano, West New Britain, Papua New Guinea.. Photo's Courtesy of James Mori - Research Center for Earthquake Prediction,Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University.

ASTER Data and images of Langila are available HERE

Additional Sources of Information:

Ball, E.E., and Johnson, R.W., 1976, Volcanic history of Long Island, Papua New Guinea, in Johnson, R.W., ed., 1976, Volcanism in Australia: Amsterdam, Elsevier, p. 133-147.

Fisher, N.H., 1957, Part V, Melanesia: Catalogue of the active volcanoes of the world, International Association of Volcanology, Rome, Italy, 105 p.

Francis, P., 1994, Volcanoes a planetary perspective: Oxford University Press, New York, 443 p.

Johnson, R.W., ed., 1976, Volcanism in Australia: Amsterdam, Elsevier, 405 p.

Simkin, T., and Siebert, L., 1994, Volcanoes of the World: Geoscience Press, Tucson, Arizona, 349 p.



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