EarthRef.org Digital Archive (ERDA) -- Vailulu'u Crater after the birth of the Nafanua volcano

Description
This blowup map of the Vailulu'u crater was created with Simrad EM120 multibeam data during the 2005 ALIA/KM0506 cruise onboard the R/V Kilo Moana. The bottom of the crater is about 1 km deep while the highest crater rims rise about 400 m above the crater floor. With a minimum rate of eight inches per day, a new volcanic cone has been growing inside the crater of Vailulu'u seamount since the last depth soundings by the US Coastguard vessel Polar Sea in April 2001. Our survey using the SIMRAD 120 system of the Kilo Moana show a radially symmetric volcanic cone in the eastern portion of the crater that displays a new volcanic summit at 708 m depth. This summit formed in a location of the crater that showed 1000m depth before the new volcano formed. This volcano was named Nafanua, after the Samoan Goddess of War.