Volcano F (also known as Volcano 0403-091) is a submarine volcano in the

Tonga Islands Located in Oceania, Tonga is a small archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, directly south of Samoa and about two-thirds of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand. It has 169 islands, 36 of them inhabited, which are in three main groups – Vavaʻu ...

of the

South Pacific Ocean South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz ...

. It is located northwest of

Vavaʻu Vavau is an island group, consisting of one large island ( ʻUtu Vavaʻu) and 40 smaller ones, in Tonga. It is part of Vavaʻu District, which includes several other individual islands. According to tradition, the Maui god created both Tongata ...

, between

Late Late may refer to: * LATE, an acronym which could stand for: ** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia ** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law ** Local average treatment effect, ...

and

Fonualei Fonualei is an uninhabited volcanic island in the kingdom of Tonga. It 70 km northwest of Vavaʻu and is part of the highly active Kermadec-Tonga subduction zone and its associated volcanic arc, which extends from New Zealand north-northea ...

on the Tofua ridge. It is part of the highly active

Kermadec-Tonga subduction zone The Kermadec-Tonga subduction zone is a convergent plate boundary that stretches from the North Island of New Zealand northward. The formation of the Kermadec and Tonga Plates started about 4–5 million years ago. Today, the eastern boundary ...

and its associated

volcanic arc A volcanic arc (also known as a magmatic arc) is a belt of volcanoes formed above a subducting oceanic tectonic plate, with the belt arranged in an arc shape as seen from above. Volcanic arcs typically parallel an oceanic trench, with the arc lo ...

, which extends from

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

north-northeast to Fiji, and is formed by the subduction of the Pacific Plate under the

Indo-Australian Plate The Indo-Australian Plate is a major tectonic plate that includes the continent of Australia and the surrounding ocean and extends northwest to include the Indian subcontinent and the adjacent waters. It was formed by the fusion of the Indian an ...

. The volcano was first mapped in 2004, and assigned the name "Volcano F". It consists of a large (8.7 x 6 km)

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...

with a depth of 670 - 720 m. The caldera walls are 200 - 300 m high, with the highest peak on the rim only below sea level. The entire volcano rises from the sea-floor.

Eruption history

The volcano erupted in September 2001, resulting in an eruption column and a

pumice raft A pumice raft is a floating raft of pumice created by some eruptions of submarine volcanoes or coastal subaerial volcanoes. Biologists suggest that animals and plants have migrated from island to island on pumice rafts. Pumice rafts have uniqu ...

which later reached the coast of Australia. Raft of rubble ESA19677130

In August 2019 a pumice raft was discovered floating in the Pacific Ocean in Tonga. The pumice raft was observed by numerous yachts and reached Fiji in September. Discoloured water and analysis of the drift path using satellite imagery showed that the raft had originated from an eruption of Volcano F beginning on 6 August 2019. The eruption was preceded by a series of earthquakes on 5 August, and ceased on 8 August.

References

Volcanoes of Tonga Submarine calderas Volcanic eruptions in Oceania Volcanism of the Pacific Ocean Vavaʻu {{Tonga-geo-stub

Eruption history

See also

References