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The Rabaul Volcanic Eruptions of 1994
Rabaul is the only urban settlement in the world built inside an active volcanoe caldera making it the most picturesque town in Papua New Guinea and giving the town one of the best all-weather harbours in the world.
The caldera is the home of a number of dormant and actice volcanoes and the Tolai people who live near these have a saying " Tikana pakana takaum kilala na nilaun - una gire ra kaia na vuvuai" - " Once in your lifetime you will experience a volcanic eruption." This was proved once again in the early hours of the morning of Sunday, 18 September 1994, as subterranean volcanic activity began violently shaking the Gazelle Peninsula, heralding the coming events. At 6:00am on Monday, 19 September, Tavurvur volcano commenced destroying Rabaul town and the surrounding villages of Talwat, Nordup, Matalau, Rabuana, Korere, Rapolo and Matupit. This was followed about one hour later on the other side of Simpson Harbour when another volcano, Vulcan (Kalamanagunan), vented itself upon the villages Raluan, Valaur, Tavana, Latlat, Rapolo, Karavia and Malaguna, burying them with Tephra and destroying the property and livelihood of thousands of people. This pictorial will give future Generations some idea of the tragedy and devastation that commenced in Rabaul and its environment on that fateful day in 1994. |
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6.06am Monday morning 19 September 1994.
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Volcanologist, Chris McKee, and communications expert, John Millard, take notes of the early stages in Tavurvur's eruption from Rabaul's Volcanological Observatory.
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Tavurvur's ash column blocks out the early morning sun as it erupts for the first time since 1943.
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Vulcan in full fury after laying dormant for over 57 years. It blasted ash and steam up to 30 km high reaching into the stratosphere and sent out pyroclastic flows and tidal waves towards Rabaul.
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Double eruption - Vulcan (left) and Tavurvur (right) fill the skies over Rabaul with a blanket of ash.
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Tavurvur's omnious ash cloud engulfs the sky above bush huts of Matupit Island.
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Stripped of vegetation, Rabalanakaia crater was reported to have erupted during the early stages of the disaster. But the crater's plug had remained intact.
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Vulcan's new craters sit exhausted after a short but energetic eruption. Vulcan's activity, rapidly declining by 24 September, had caused by 2 October, 14 days into the eruptions.
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Tavurvur continues to blast out a constant billowing cloud of ash high into the afternoon sky. As the air cools the rising waitsan (volcanic ash/black sand) it falls across Simpson Harbour. Rabaul sits desolate and devastated in the foreground.
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The Hornet's nest.
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Concealed in a shroud of ash the roofs of Rabaul groan and crunch, collapsing under the strain of heavy ash loads.
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The Tavurvur Volcano spitting out ashes.
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Tavurvur's larva flow exited from the west side of the crater taking four weeks to progress approximately 100 metres down the west flank.
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Tavurvur slows it's pace to intermittent explosions, opening the way for Rabaul's recovery.
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With a thundering roar, comparable to a jet engine, nature's own fireworks display blasts incandescent rocks into the moonlight sky over Tavurvur's southern slopes.
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Kalamanagunan which is the "Vulcan Volcano".
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Tavurvur's 1994 crater veiwed to the N.W. during eruption intervals. The white and yellow of salt and sulphur residue clearly line the inside of the crater.
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After the eruptions, here are some photos of the affects resulted in Rabaul East New Britain.
A buried house amid the desolate landscape of Rapolo village approximately 3km north of Vulcan. |
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A devasted area of Malaytown approximately 4km south-west of Tavurvur.
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The remains of one of the streets in Rabaul town.
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A house destroyed by the eruption.
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The roof of the two storey Ernest and Young building through the first floor to the ground floor.
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Giant size earthmoving vehicles made to look like Tonka toys in the sandpit.
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Set in time. Tables in the Breezeway Restaurant at Rabaul's Travelodge laid for a meal that never eventuated. With rain water and regular earth movements, the mud slowly compacted, as testified by mud level marks on the walls.
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The pumic produced by the eruption covered roughly half of the habour (approximately 8 sq km) and at one stage measured 1.7 metres in depth, blocking shipping access to vital port facilities for more than 5 weeks.
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A pilot boat cuts it's way through Simpson Hobour's pumic raft. Currents and seasonal winds eventually dispersed pumice drifts into the South Pacific seas.
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A dog that died in the cause of the eruption.
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The remains of the Rabaul Works and Supply located in Malaguna.
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Warriors of a new terrain.
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The crudity of a volcanic grave. The body of this elderly man, buried where he lay, was discovered on an early reconnaissance patrol by the mobile squad's Inspector Wauwia and his men.
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Rabaul's airport, rendered obselate, was replaced by the emergency airstrip at Tokua which has now been developed into the area's new airport.
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The whole area of the Rabaul airstrip taken looking from uphigh.
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Another shot of the Rabaul airport taken on the other end of the airstrip.
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The remains of the Rabaul airport.
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Camouflaged in the landscape, 3 light aircraft and 2 helicopters that were left behind in the haste.
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Like so many, a family pet left to cope with this disaster alone.
Having to scavenge for what little food and water they could find, most domesticated dogs soon formed packs and reverted to instincts of the wild. However, this dog I found, three weeks into the eruptions, remained layal to it's home, maybe in the hope that one day it's family would return. |
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The devasted Rabaul.
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An aerial view of Rabaul illustrates the extent of the destruction. The discarded mess above the ash also reveals evidence of mass looting.
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A home violated. What wasn't destroyed by the vocanoes was quickly looted in a frenzy of opportunity - a problem that the police and army were initially unable to control.
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