Vulcan (volcano)

Vulcan (volcano)
Vulcan, as seen from space.
Highest point
Elevation	243 m (797 ft)
Coordinates	4°16′16″S 152°10′12″E / 4.271°S 152.17°E / -4.271; 152.17Coordinates: 4°16′16″S 152°10′12″E / 4.271°S 152.17°E / -4.271; 152.17
Geography
Location	East New Britain, Papua New Guinea
Geology
Mountain type	Pumice cone, vent of Rabaul caldera
Last eruption	1994 to 1995

Vulcan is a pumice cone in Papua New Guinea. It is a sub-vent of the Rabaul caldera and lies on the western rim of the larger feature. Its most recent eruption was in 1994, when in conjunction with another vent, Tavurvur, the eruptions of Vulcan forced the temporary abandonment of the city of Rabaul and the relocation of the local administrative centres of East New Britain Province, to a new capital, Kokopo. Today, the slopes of Vulcan are now forested, as a result of dormancy since 1994.

Vulcan did not exist during the German colonial times, although the agronomist for the New Guinea Company, Richard Parkinson, did note a small island in the harbour in 1880 had grown noticeably larger by 1900. During the 1920s the island offered enough new land for Australian colonials to open a sporting club there, with tennis courts. By 1937 Vulcan was its current size and erupted that year, filling the harbour with a thick layer of pumice. An Australian Navy sailor walked out from the wharf some hundred meters before he broke through the crust and drowned.