More than 500 people taken to safety as long-dormant Kadovar Island starts spewing ash in its first such activity on record

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

An island volcano in Papua New Guinea has begun spewing ash into the air, forcing the evacuation of more than 500 residents, media and non-profit groups have said.



Kadovar Island, a 365 metre tall volcanic island just north-east of PNG, was thought to be dormant until it began erupting on 5 January.

“It’s just a continuous emission of volcanic ash at the moment,” said Cheyne O’Brien, a forecaster at the Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre.

Loop PNG (@looppng) Avoid approaching island: RVO https://t.co/pIXfEfBK3t

Ash clouds had reached a height of 2,133 metres, forming a plume that was travelling west-north-west, said O’Brien. A change in wind direction could hit operations at PNG’s Wewak airport, O’Brien added.

All residents of the island have been evacuated with no loss of life, said the US-based charity Samaritan Aviation, which operates seaplanes to remote areas of PNG.

An estimated 500-600 people live on the island. The eruption may become explosive, with a risk of tsunamis and landslides, according to comments attributed to PNG’s Rabaul Volcanolo Observatory by Loop PNG.

There were no confirmed records of a previous eruption of Kadovar, said Chris Firth, a vulcanologist at Macquarie University, but scientists speculated it could have been one of two “burning islands” mentioned in the journals of the 17th-century English pirate and maritime adventurer William Dampier.



Dampier may have recorded the last eruption of Kadovar during a voyage in search of Terra Australis, the southern continent once thought to be mythical, Firth said.

Vulcanologists were interested to observe its behaviour, Firth added. “It’s hard to predict what might happen as there’s nothing to compare it to.”