Tavurvur is an active stratovolcano near Rabaul in East New Britain province, Papua New Guinea. It is a sub-vent of the Rabaul caldera and lies on the eastern rim of the larger feature. The volcano is most well known for its devastating eruptions over Rabaul.

The volcano is the most active feature of the Rabaul caldera, and has erupted as recently as January 2009.

History

In 1937, Tavurvur, along with another nearby sub-vent Vulcan, erupted killing 507 people and causing enormous damage to the Rabaul township. Then in 1994, in conjunction with Vulcan again, the eruptions of Tavurvur forced the abandonment of most of Rabaul and the relocation of the provincial government to a new capital Kokopo.

On the 7th of October 2006 the volcano erupted again, and an initial blast shattered windows up to 12 kilometres away and sent an ash plume 18 km into the stratosphere. Fortunately this time winds blew most of the ash away from Rabaul.

Gallery

image:NASA_RabaulVolcano_PIA01767.jpg|Space Radar Image of Rabaul VolcanoImage:Tavurvur.png|Tavurvur from spaceimage:Tavurvur volcano edit.jpghttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Rabaul_caldera

References

External links

• Volcano World: Tavurvur, Rabaul Caldera