On 28 April the Vanuatu Meteorology and Geo-Hazards Department (VMGD) reported ongoing steam-and-gas emissions from Gaua’s Mt. Garet, and warned visitors that they may notice a sulfur odor near the cone. On 3 May local villages, especially in Naveto in the NE part of the island, heard a loud explosion and then saw a dense ash plume rising from Mt. Garet during 0900-0930. The Alert Level remained at 2 (on a scale of 0-5).

Geological Summary. The roughly 20-km-diameter Gaua Island, also known as Santa Maria, consists of a basaltic-to-andesitic stratovolcano with an 6 x 9 km summit caldera. Small vents near the caldera rim fed Pleistocene lava flows that reached the coast on several sides of the island; littoral cones were formed where these lava flows reached the ocean. Quiet collapse that formed the roughly 700-m-deep caldera was followed by extensive ash eruptions. The active Mount Garet (or Garat) cone in the SW part of the caldera has three pit craters across the summit area. Construction of Garet and other small cinder cones has left a crescent-shaped lake. The onset of eruptive activity from a vent high on the SE flank in 1962 ended a long period of dormancy.

Source: Vanuatu Meteorology and Geohazards Department (VMGD)