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Kavachi is one of the most active submarine volcanoes in the south-west
When the volcano erupted in 2003, a island formed above the surface, but it disappeared soon after. Additional eruptive activity was observed and reported in March 2004 and April 2007. More recent volcanic activity can be inferred from observations of discolored water around the volcano, in 2020 and January 2021.
Kavachi in action
{{Authority control Active volcanoes Submarine volcanoes Volcanoes of the Solomon Islands Seamounts of the Pacific Ocean Ephemeral islands
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...
. Located south of Vangunu Island in the Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...
, it is named after a sea god of the New Georgia Group
The New Georgia Islands are part of the Western Province (Solomon Islands), Western Province of Solomon Islands. They are located to the northwest of Guadalcanal. The larger islands are mountainous and covered in rain forest. The main islands a ...
islanders and is also referred to locally as ''Rejo te Kavachi'' ("Kavachi's oven"). The volcano has become emergent and then been eroded back into the sea at least eight times since its first recorded eruption in 1939.
Geography
In May 2000, an international research team aboard the CSIRO research vessel FRANKLIN fixed the position of the volcano at 8° 59.65'S, 157° 58.23'E. At that time the vent of the volcano was below sea level, but frequent eruptions ejected molten lava up toabove sea level
Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...
, and sulfurous steam plumes up to . The team mapped a roughly conical feature rising from water depth, with the volcano having a basal diameter of about .
Eruptions
When the volcano erupted in 2003, a island formed above the surface, but it disappeared soon after. Additional eruptive activity was observed and reported in March 2004 and April 2007. More recent volcanic activity can be inferred from observations of discolored water around the volcano, in 2020 and January 2021.
Marine life
In 2015, marine wildlife was found living inside Kavachi'scrater
A crater is a landform consisting of a hole or depression (geology), depression on a planetary surface, usually caused either by an object hitting the surface, or by geological activity on the planet. A crater has classically been described ...
, including the scalloped hammerhead
The scalloped hammerhead (''Sphyrna lewini'') is a species of hammerhead shark in the family (biology), family Hammerhead shark, Sphyrnidae. It was originally known as ''Zygaena lewini''. The Greek language, Greek word ''sphyrna'' translates into ...
, the silky shark, and the sixgill stingray.
__NOTOC__
It has subsequently been given the nickname "Sharkcano" by various media outlets.
See also
*List of new islands
Below is a list of new islands created since the beginning of the 20th century by volcanism, erosion, Retreat of glaciers since 1850, glacial retreat, or other mechanisms. One of the most famous new volcanic islands is the small island of Surtse ...
* Woodlark Basin
References
Further reading
*Baker, E.T., Massoth, G.J., de Ronde, C.E.J., Lupton, J.E., Lebon, G., and McInnes, B.I.A. 2002. Observations and sampling of an ongoing subsurface eruption of Kavachi volcano, Solomon Islands, May 2000, Geology, 30 (11), 975–978. (geology.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/reprint/30/11/975.pdf) *Dunkley, P.M., 1983. Volcanism and the evolution of the ensimatic Solomon Islands Arc, in Shimozuro, D. And Yokoyama, I.,(eds.), Arc Volcanism: Physics and Tectonics. Tokyo, Terrapub, 225–241. *Johnson, R.W. and Tuni, D. 1987. Kavachi, an active forearc volcano in the western Solomon Islands: Reported eruptions between 1950 and 1982, in B. Taylor and N.F. Exon, (eds.), 1987, Marine Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry of the Woodlark Basin-Solomon Islands, Circum-Pacific Council for Energy and Mineral Resources Earth Science Series, v. 7: Houston, Texas, Circum-Pacific Council for Energy and Mineral Resources.External links
Kavachi in action
{{Authority control Active volcanoes Submarine volcanoes Volcanoes of the Solomon Islands Seamounts of the Pacific Ocean Ephemeral islands