Banda Api (Indonesia)

Status Unrest Eruption 1988 596m
Caldera (Subduction zone / Oceanic crust (< 15 km))

Banda Api

The small island volcano of Banda Api is the NE-most volcano in the Sunda-Banda arc and has a long period of historical observation because of its key location in the Portuguese and Dutch spice trade. The basaltic-to-rhyodacitic volcano is located in the SW corner of a 7-km-wide mostly submerged caldera that comprises the northernmost of a chain of volcanic islands in the Banda Sea. At least two episodes of caldera formation are thought to have occurred, with the arcuate islands of Lonthor and Neira considered to be remnants of the pre-caldera volcanoes. A conical peak rises to about 600 m at the center of the 3-km-wide Banda Api island. Historical eruptions have been recorded since 1586, mostly consisting of Strombolian eruptions from the summit crater, but larger explosive eruptions have occurred and occasional lava flows have reached the coast.

The 640-m-high symmetrical volcano of Banda Api, the most active of a chain of volcanoes in Indonesia's Banda Sea, forms a small 3-km-wide island within a largely submerged 7-km-wide caldera. This May 19, 1988, view from the south shows vegetation damage from the 1988 eruption and the southern half of a prominent arcuate fissure that extended from the south coast through the summit to 200 m above the north coast. The still-steaming narrow black lava flow entering the sea to the left of center is one of four erupted in 1988.

Photo by Tom Casadevall, 1988 (U.S. Geological Survey).

Last updated 2024-03-28 03:23:38