Vanuatu: Mother Nature's Fireworks

We left Fiji, sailing through Bligh Water named for Captain Bligh of Bounty fame. The mutiny on the Bounty took place off Tonga. Bligh and 18 crew who remained loyal to him were put in an open overloaded 23ft tender and traveled 3600nm (6700km) to the Dutch East Indies. On this remarkable journey they were chased by cannibals the length of Bligh Water. We were a little more fortunate. We had a pleasant ride through Fiji, but a rough yet fast ride from Fiji to Vanuatu.

 

Futuna Island, a volcano we pass as we approach Vanuatu

Our first stop is Port Resolution on the Island of Tanna. In 1774 Captain Cook visited this bay and named it after his ship HMS Resolution. The reason Cook and we are drawn to this harbor is because of Mount Yasur clearly visible from the Ocean. Jet takes it forward from here:

Windy Hill... Hill?
===================
Yesterday we hiked up Mount Yasur in Tanna, Vanuatu. Mount Yasur is not not really Palo Alto's windy hill, or a mountain, for it's:

A god's forge,
A devil's gorge,
A mountain of ash, and gray
But in the center,
A fireworks display!

A volcano!

 

Hein's artist impression (dedicated to Uncle Gerbrand)

In preparation for our trip to Yasur we wore clothing that covered us up well since some of the Mosquitoes is Vanuatu carry Malaria. In the end we didn't see a single mosquito, but the clothing helped us against the high winds found on Yasur's crater rim.

 

The Conti's from Ocealys and Mante's from Bravado heading for Yasur.

As the pickup truck in the back of which we rode brought us closer to the volcano the vegetation changed. Massive ferns were everywhere and steam billowed out of the ground, particularly in the places where we had just driven. Very eery!

 

Hein and Eltjo standing on the rim

We hiked the final bit up the mountain. Though the wind was rather hard and cold we were thankful that it was strong because it allowed us to view "force 2" eruptions in relative safety from the very edge of the crater. We arrived just before sunset and as night fell the glowing lava was all the more visible against the night sky. The explosions were absolutely magnificent.

 

The explosions throw shoebox to bathtub sized blob's of lava 300m+ into the air.

First you would have a few smaller ones that were barely visible, then you would have a big one with lava shooting 300m (1000ft) into the air. Just before the lava reached its peak (apogee) the sound wave would catch up and you would hear a tremendous boom and the sulfurous smell would hit you. The lava would fall back to earth in a tempo that seemed like slow motion. After the explosion the lava would tumble from where it landed back into the crater creating glowing streams of fire. A few blobs landed outside the crater and we had to keep a good lookout as some landed around us!

 

Lava streaming back into the crater

 

Lava and stars (click image to enlarge)

After some 15 explosions and an hour of photographing, filming, and studying with the bare eye we headed back down the mountainside. While walking back, Hein, Dad, and I who had stayed a little longer than the rest found ourselves walking back in the dark without light. Overall the volcano was not super scary, but walking back in the dark, and seeing the lava shooting up beside you, while feeling the still warm sand between our toes was not a comfortable feeling. After blazing our own path for a while we made it back to our outbound track with a *very* healthy respect for mother nature!

 

Do you spot the incentive for not loosing your balance here as you find your way home? ;)

Back at the boat we had a dinner of baguette with cream cheese, or cucumber and mayonnaise.


P.S. Later we learned that the lava had a temperature of 1200 degrees Celsius. We also lifted some of the blobs of lava that were cooled down and lying all around us. They were very light containing lots of holes with gasses inside them and very brittle. We think the gasses and the high temperatures explain why the blobs of lava would fall back to earth so slowly.

Jet Mante
October 11, 2009