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Latest news from Gaua volcano:
Gaua volcano (Vanuatu), activity update: low activity
Tuesday, Jan 04, 2011
Activity at Gaua volcano on Vanuatu remains low. The Vanuatu Meteorological and Geohazards Department reports that the volcano is now emitting less ga... [more]
Gaua volcano (Vanuatu), activity update: ash emissions
Thursday, Jun 24, 2010
The remote Gaua volcano remains very active. Wellington VAAC monitors ash plumes often rising to 3 km (10,1000 ft) a.s.l. [more]

Gaua volcano

stratovolcano 797 m / 2,615 ft
Vanuatu , -14.27°S / 167.5°E
Current status: restless (2 out of 5)
Gaua webcams / live data
Typical eruption style: explosive, ash eruptions
Gaua volcano eruptions: July 1962, 1963, Sep 1965, 1966, Jul 1967, 1968, Sep 1969, May 1971, Oct 1973 - Jan 1974, Jan 1976, April 1977, 1980, July 1981, April 1982, Sep 2009 - ongoing
Gaua is one of the most remote and most active volcanoes of the Vanuatu archipel. Its most recent eruption started in Sep 2009 from Mt Garet inside the caldera lake and is ongoing (as of April 2010).

Background:

The roughly 20-km-diameter Gaua Island, also known as Santa Maria, consists of a basaltic-to-andesitic stratovolcano with an 6 x 9 km wide summit caldera. Small parasitic vents near the caldera rim fed Pleistocene lava flows that reached the coast on several sides of the island; several littoral cones were formed where these lava flows reached the sea. Quiet collapse that formed the roughly 700-m-deep caldera was followed by extensive ash eruptions. Construction of the historically active cone of Mount Garat (Gharat) and other small cinder cones in the SW part of the caldera has left a crescent-shaped caldera lake. The symmetrical, flat-topped Mount Garat cone is topped by three pit craters. The onset of eruptive activity from a vent high on the SE flank of Mount Garat in 1962 ended a long period of dormancy. (Source: GVP)