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The Landscape of Bougainville is dominated by the brooding volcanoes of Mt Balbi in the north and the very active Mt Bagana in the centre. Mt Bagana always seems to have a plume of steam punctuated from time to time with clouds of ash. I had the priviledge to accompany the geologists of Bougainville Copper on a survelliance trip over the active crater of Mt Bagana. Tthe volcano continuously extrudes viscous flows of Andesitic Lava which flow slowly down the side of the cone. Often the surface of the lava is stained with sulphur (as in photo below) |
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Mt Balbi at 2715 metres height is classified as dormant although the presence of active fumeroles and deposits of sulphur would suggest a very recently active volcano. It is believed to been active in recent centuries with massive pyroclastic flow eruptions |
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Not a volcano but very spectactular and to the west of My Balbi is the massive "big hole" and Benua Cave located in the Keriaka limestone plateau, which is said to have one of the world’s largest caverns (4,500,000 cubic metres).The cave consists of a single chamber, 470m along its longest length with a maximum width of 150m and height of 170m. We could have flown the helicopter into the cave to give some idea of scale. |
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