Lopevi, Central Islands, Vanuatu

ERUPTIVE HISTORY

Location: 16.507S , 168.346E
Elevation: 4,747 feet (1,447 m)
Last Updated: May 22, 2006


Image Source: photo by M. Fulle.
Click here for more excellent information and photographs of Lopevi from Stromboli Online


The small 7-km-wide conical island of Lopevi is one of Vanuatu's most active volcanoes. A small summit crater containing a cinder cone is breached to the NW and tops an older cone that is rimmed by the remnant of a larger crater. The basaltic-to-andesitic volcano has been active during historical time at both summit and flank vents, primarily along a NW-SE-trending fissure that cuts across the island, producing moderate explosive eruptions and lava flows that reached the coast. Historical eruptions at the 1413-m-high volcano date back to the mid-19th century. The island was evacuated following eruptions in 1939 and 1960. The latter eruption, from a NW-flank fissure vent, produced a pyroclastic flow that swept to the sea and a lava flow that formed a new peninsula on the western coast.



Cross-section of upper mantle and crust beneath Lopevi, northern Vanuatu volcanic arc. The eastward-moving Australian Plate, here made of oceanic crust and upper mantle, is subducted beneath the westward-moving Pacific Plate. Lopevi is on the Pacific Plate. The lack of earthquakes between 50 and 200 km depth suggests that the subducted plate has broken into two pieces. Magma is generated at a greater depth, relative to the southern Vanuatu volcanic arc. Rocks melt where the mantle in the asthenosphere is modified by fluids leaving the subducted plate. Compare to the tectonic setting of Lopevi, northern Vanuatu volcanic arc. Arrows show direction of flowing rocks in the asthenospheric mantle. From Monzier and others (1997).




December 2001 Image of Lopevi taken from the Radarsat-1 Satellite
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