"During June and July, seismic activity was semi-continuous. Shallow events, always located under the summit craters, were frequent (1-5/day). Some deep events (3-5 km) under the E part of the caldera were also noted but were less frequent. Since the end of May, some rare deeper events have been recorded, but were located less precisely.

"A small eruption occurred during the night of 13-14 July (between 1810 and 0010) after only two very shallow seismic events (at 1710, 500 m under the summit, M 1.1-1.5). A very minor amount of lava was emitted inside the 29 March pit crater. Small fountains produced 10-15,000 m³ of lava. Access to the lava is still prevented by continuous wall collapse of the 85-m-deep pit crater.

"Since the beginning of June, small tilt variations have been observed (maximum 24 µrads). The permanent tiltmeter network (Bory station on the summit and Chapelle in the caldera) recorded neither progressive nor irregular variations during the 10 previous days. After the eruption, seismic activity remained at a low level."

Geological Summary. Piton de la Fournaise is a massive basaltic shield volcano on the French island of Réunion in the western Indian Ocean. Much of its more than 530,000-year history overlapped with eruptions of the deeply dissected Piton des Neiges shield volcano to the NW. Three scarps formed at about 250,000, 65,000, and less than 5,000 years ago by progressive eastward slumping, leaving caldera-sized embayments open to the E and SE. Numerous pyroclastic cones are present on the floor of the scarps and their outer flanks. Most recorded eruptions have originated from the summit and flanks of Dolomieu, a 400-m-high lava shield that has grown within the youngest scarp, which is about 9 km wide and about 13 km from the western wall to the ocean on the E side. More than 150 eruptions, most of which have produced fluid basaltic lava flows, have occurred since the 17th century. Only six eruptions, in 1708, 1774, 1776, 1800, 1977, and 1986, have originated from fissures outside the scarps.

Information Contacts: H. Delorme and J-F. Delarue, OVPDLF; J-L. Le Mouel, J-.L. Cheminee, A. Hirn, P. Blum, and J. Zlotnicki, IPGP; J. Lenat, Centre des Recherches Volcanologiques and Observatoire de Physique du Globe de Clermont Ferrand.