Mount Yasur

One of the highest mountains in Vanuatu is Mount Yasur. The mountain is a volcano on Tanna Island, Vanuatu, 361 meters (1,184 feet) above sea level, located on the coast near Sulphur Bay, northeast of the taller Mount Tukosmera, which was active during the Pleistocene epoch. It has a largely unvegetated pyroclastic cone with a 400-meter-diameter summit crater. It is a stratovolcano formed by the subduction of the eastward-moving Indo-Australian Plate beneath the westward-moving Pacific Plate. It has been erupting nearly continuously for several hundred years, but it is usually safe to approach. Its eruptions are classified as Strombolian or Vulcanian, and they occur several times per hour. At the valley's bottom, a large lava plain creeps across it.

The glow of the volcano was apparently what drew Captain James Cook to the island on his first European visit in 1774. The mountain is now a sacred site for the John Frum cargo cult. Members of the cult worship John Frum, a deified messenger who foretold the arrival of American forces on the island, and believe he resides in Mount Yasur with his countrymen. The village of Sulphur Bay, the movement's epicenter, claims ownership of the volcano.

Height: 361 m (1,184 ft)
Location: Tanna, Vanuatu