Taveuni Volcano
Updated: Apr 18, 2024 06:31 GMT -
shield volcano 1241 m / 4,071 ft
Fiji Islands, -16.82°S / 179.97°E
Current status: normal or dormant (1 out of 5)
Fiji Islands, -16.82°S / 179.97°E
Current status: normal or dormant (1 out of 5)
Taveuni volcano is a massive, elongated basaltic shield volcano, which forms the 40 km long Tavenui Island, the 3rd largest of the Fiji Islands. Tavenui is known as the "Garden Island" because of its rich volcanic soils.
Tavenui volcano has had at least 36 eruptions since the the known human occupation of between 370-110 BC. All of these eruptions, on average every 60-65 years, have occurred from vents on the southern two-thirds of the island.
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Taveuni volcano eruptions: 1550 ± 100 years, 1420 ± 20, 1350 ± 75, 1160 ± 150, 1020 (?), 880 AD (?), 770 AD (?), 640 AD ± 40, 520 AD ± 100, 480 AD ± 75, 400 AD ± 50, 350 AD (?), 320 AD ± 100, 270 AD (?), 220 AD ± 100, 90 BC ± 200, 200 BC (?), 330 BC ± 75, 400 BC ± 20, 600 BC (?), 680 BC (?), 1020 BC (?), 1100 BC (?), 1200 BC (?), 1300 BC (?), 1450 BC (?), 1700 BC (?), 3200 BC ± 150, 3580 BC ± 200, 4800 BC ± 100, 5230 BC ± 100, 5920 BC ± 75, 6560 BC ± 75, 8040 BC ± 50 years
Latest nearby earthquakes
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Background
Tavenui is located at the northern end of the backarc basin of the Koro Sea. The volcano has been active for about 780,000 years.A period of voluminous eruptions took place between about 300 and 500 AD and caused abandonment of the southern part the island of Taveuni until about 1100 AD.
Taveuni is dotted with about 150 scoria cones, craters and fissure zones, most of them along the NE-SW rift axis, and only few west of the axial rift zone. The latest known eruption produced a lava flow at the southern tip of the island sometime between about 1450-1650 AD.
Latest satellite images
