again

Kavachi, up to its old tricks again

From STUART INDER, in Honiara Kavachi, an undersea volcano in the Solomons which has been sighted off and on since 1950, in February was up to its jack in-the-box tricks again.

Showing itself for the first time in 10 years, it heaved itself out of the sea and quicky built itself into a 100 ft cone of island, 250 ft in circumference, red hot at the crest.

Then it climbed to 200 ft (when our photograph was taken from the air by the BSIP Information Service).

But a few days later, when I flew over Kavachi on a TAA flight between Kieta and Honiara, Captain Ron Webb and First Officer Keith Milner had to go to a little trouble to identify the new island—for it was now only a grey stain on the surface of the sea.

Kavachi is 15 miles SW of Gatuka’i Island, New Georgia, or specifically 158° E Long, and 9° S Lat.

Back in 1952, local man Michael Georgetti, master of the Lomare, found himself right above Kavachi at one of the rare occasions it decided to come up for air.

The helmsman swung the ship to avoid a blast of fire and steam; scorching red flames were so close they blistered the vessel’s paint work.

The island on that occasion built up to 15 ft high, but 100 ft in length, and had disappeared by January, 1953.

New Britain, too

Meanwhile, relatively nearby on New Britain, Mount Ulawun was causing some alarm with a series of eruptions up to early February.

Workers were moved from the nearby Ulamona Mission for their own safety but it turned out they were in no great danger from the flowing lava.

Ulawun, also known as the Father (Rabaul, of course, has volcanoes called the Mother and the North and South Daughters and there is a local myth telling how the Father got 60 miles away from them) calmed down sufficiently for the people to return home later in February.