Barren Island (India)

Status Minor Eruption 2019 354m
Stratovolcano (Subduction zone / Continental crust (> 25 km))

Barren Island, a possession of India in the Andaman Sea about 135 km NE of Port Blair in the Andaman Islands, is the only historically active volcano along the N-S volcanic arc extending between Sumatra and Burma (Myanmar). It is the emergent summit of a volcano that rises from a depth of about 2250 m. The small, uninhabited 3-km-wide island contains a roughly 2-km-wide caldera with walls 250-350 m high. The caldera, which is open to the sea on the west, was created during a major explosive eruption in the late Pleistocene that produced pyroclastic-flow and -surge deposits. Historical eruptions have changed the morphology of the pyroclastic cone in the center of the caldera, and lava flows that fill much of the caldera floor have reached the sea along the western coast.

An eruption column in 1991 rises above Barren Island, the only historically active volcano along a volcanic arc connecting Sumatra and Myanmar (Burma). The small 3-km-wide island contains a 1.6-km-wide crater partially filled by a cinder cone that has been the source of eruptions since the first was recorded in 1787. Lava flows reached the coast during several recent eruptions.

Photo courtesy of D. Haldar, 1991 (Geological Survey of India).

Last updated 2024-04-04 23:05:51