Fire Mountains of the Islands

A History of Volcanic Eruptions and Disaster Management in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands

R. W. Johnson

• Publisher: ANU Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9781922144225
• eBook ISBN:
  9781922144232
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Geology & Earth Sciences

Volcanic eruptions have killed thousands of people and damaged homes, villages, infrastructure, subsistence gardens, and hunting and fishing grounds in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The central business district of a town was destroyed by a volcanic eruption in the case of Rabaul in 1994. Volcanic disasters litter not on

Table of contents

• Preliminary pages
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements and Sources
• Volcano Names and Totals
• 1. Burning Islands and Dampier’s Voyage: 1700
• 2. Volcano Sightings by European Navigators: 1528–1870
• 3. European Intruders and the 1878 Rabaul Eruption: 1870–1883
• 4. Volcanic Events of the German Era: 1884–1914
• 5. Australian Colonists and the Volcanoes of Mainland New Guinea:1849–1938
• 6. Calderas, Ignimbrites and the1937 Eruption at Rabaul: 1914–1940
• 7. Eruptions during the Pacific Warand Postwar Recovery: 1941–1950
• 8. Disaster at Lamington: 1951–1952
• 9. Tony Taylor and an Eruption Time Cluster: 1951–1966
• 10. Plate Tectonics and False Alarms:1960–1972
• 11. Cooke-Ravian and a Volcanic Resurgence: 1971–1979
• 12. Eruption Alert at Rabaul Caldera:1971–1994
• 13. Eruptions at Rabaul: 1994–1999
• 14. Eruptions of the Early Twenty-first Century: 1998–2008
• 15. Reassessing Volcanic Risk in the North-eastern Gazelle Peninsula: 2000–2012
• 16. Historical Analysis and Volcanic Disaster-Risk Reduction
• An Epilogue
• Appendix: Acronyms and Glossaries
• Index