Country: | Papua New Guinea | ||
Subregion Name: | Bougainville Island | ||
Volcano Number: | 0505-02= | ||
Volcano Type: | Lava cone | ||
Volcano Status: | Historical | ||
Last Known Eruption: | 2008 (in or after) | ||
Summit Elevation: | 1750 m | 5,741 feet | |
Latitude: | 6.140°S | 6°8'24"S | |
Longitude: | 155.195°E | 155°11'42"E | |
Bagana volcano, occupying a remote portion of central Bougainville Island, is one of Melanesia's youngest and most active volcanoes. Bagana is a massive symmetrical, roughly 1750-m-high lava cone largely constructed by an accumulation of viscous andesitic lava flows. The entire lava cone could have been constructed in about 300 years at its present rate of lava production. Eruptive activity at Bagana is frequent and is characterized by non-explosive effusion of viscous lava that maintains a small lava dome in the summit crater, although explosive activity occasionally producing pyroclastic flows also occurs. Lava flows form dramatic, freshly preserved tongue-shaped lobes up to 50-m-thick with prominent levees that descend the volcano's flanks on all sides. |