Yasur Volcano, Vanuatu, July 29, 2019

Postby Tony Crocker » Sat Aug 10, 2019 10:25 pm

On our way home from Australia we went to Vanuatu to scuba dive the President Coolidge. Vanuatu is west of Fiji in the time zone between New Zealand and east coast Australia. Espiritu Santo was the largest American base in the South Pacific during WWII but it's quite low key and remote now. Most tourists are Aussies, less than 1% are American and from Darwin it took us three flights and 19 hours to get there.

There are dive pictures in the link above. We did not get any as our GoPro flooded again. All of our dives were at least 100 feet and The Lady is at 130 feet. Dives we did not do toward the stern of the ship are deeper still. We had three days of diving and the mandatory no-dive day when we hiked to Millennium Cave before leaving Santo.

Almost all international flights come into Vanuatu's capital Port Vila, where we had a 5 hour layover on the way in. On the way out we needed to stay overnight and nearly all of the next day before catching our Air Fiji flights home. We arranged the flight logistics last fall and our Australia cars and lodging in April. We had not made any arrangement for Vanuatu when we were fortunate to find a booth for Vanuatu Tourism at the Long Beach Scuba Show in early May. On their recommendation we stayed at the Aore Island Resort and dived with Aore Island Adventures, both of which we recommend highly.

So finally we wondered what to do on our day in Port Vila and in the Vanuatu Tourism brochure we soon found out about this.
IMG_4432.JPG


Tanna Island is nearly as far south of Port Vila as Espiritu Santo is north, but two companies offer daytrips to Tanna. We signed up with Air Taxi Vanuatu, which would return us to the Port Vila airport just over an hour before our flight connection home. After takeoff we got a bird's eye view of Port Vila and its harbor.
IMG_4382.JPG


On the way to Tanna we saw for the first time an airplane glory projected on a cloud below.
IMG_9017a.JPG


At last we fly directly over the Yasur volcano on Tanna.
IMG_4410.JPG

IMG_9041.JPG

The walking trail to the rim is visible coming from the lower right corner of the second picture above.

The pilot made passes for both sides of our plans. My side got a good view of glowing lava.
IMG_4420.JPG

IMG_4421.JPG

IMG_4422.JPG


We landed at the airport on the west side of Tanna.
IMG_9092a.JPG


Then we got into the back of a pickup truck to drive across the island to the volcano. Here's the view from the high point of the road.
IMG_4442.JPG


Here we are driving across an ash field on the SW side of the volcano.
IMG_4452.JPG

We were with a couple Tony and Beth from New Zealand, and Solomon, who sailed his boat to Vanuatu from Sydney.

More moonscape as we approach the volcano.
IMG_4460a.JPG

Does that slope from the left look tempting? Yes you can sled or board that if you spend more time here.
IMG_4473a.JPG

IMG_4468.JPG

The other attraction of an overnight stay is to be on the rim at sunset for a more obvious red glow out of the caldera.

Banyan tree swing where we stopped for a short break:
IMG_4471.JPG


The truck reaches parking quite close, just a 5 minute walk to the rim.
IMG_4478.JPG


Mt. Yasur spelled out:
IMG_4486.JPG


It's bit breezy here, probably a prevailing wind that makes this the safest viewpoint.
IMG_4488.JPG


Vegetation comes surprisingly close to the volcano on its east side.
IMG_4496.JPG


The volcano rumbles continuously.
IMG_4507.JPG

The slightly colored smoke would be a more dramatic glow at sunset.

The rumble and smoke output varies.
IMG_9078.JPG

IMG_9083.JPG

IMG_9084.JPG


The loudest rumbles eject rocks high into the air. These were difficult to photograph but they are clearly visible as black specks here during the loudest event we witnessed.
IMG_4499b.JPG


I got the impression our visit was quieter than average. If you visit Mt. Yasur you will see an eruption in action.
http://bestsnow.net
Ski Records
Season length: 21 months, Nov. 29, 2010 - July 2, 2012
Days in one year: 80 from Nov. 29, 2010 - Nov. 17, 2011
Season vertical: 1,610K in 2016-17
Season powder: 291K in 2011-12
User avatar
Tony Crocker
 
Posts: 10140
Joined: Thu Sep 23, 2004 10:37 am
Location: Avatar: Charlotte Bay, Antarctica 2011
Location: Glendale, California

Top

Re: Yasur Volcano, Vanuatu, July 29, 2019

Postby jamesdeluxe » Mon Aug 12, 2019 9:20 am

I love volcano reports. The only ones I've visited are very dormant: Haleakala on Maui (last eruption 1790) and Valles Caldera in New Mexico (last eruption: 1.2 million years ago).
:lol:
User avatar
jamesdeluxe
 
Posts: 3491
Joined: Mon Oct 04, 2004 3:19 pm
Location: South Orange, NJ
Top