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Piton De La Fournaise volcano, France
The massive Piton de la Fournaise on the island of Reunion is one of the world's most active volcanoes.
It is seen here in 1977 with a fresh black lava flow descending the outer NE flank of the shield volcano to the sea.
An unvegetated summit lava shield (upper left) was constructed within an 8-km-wide caldera that is breached to the sea. Its sloping northern rim is marked by the diagonal vegetation line at the left.
More than 150 eruptions have occurred since the 17th century, mostly from vents within the caldera.
The massive Piton de la Fournaise basaltic shield volcano on the French island of Reunion in the western Indian Ocean is one of the world's most active volcanoes.
Much of its >530,000 year history overlapped with eruptions of the deeply dissected Piton des Neiges shield volcano to the NW.
Three calderas formed at about 250,000, 65,000, and less than 5000 years ago by progressive eastward slumping of the volcano.
Numerous pyroclastic cones dot the floor of the calderas and their outer flanks.
Most historical eruptions have originated from the summit and flanks of Dolomieu, a 400-m-high lava shield that has grown within the youngest caldera, which is 8 km wide and breached to below sea level on the eastern side.
More than 150 eruptions, most of which have produced fluid basaltic lava flows, have occurred since the 17th century.
Only six eruptions, in 1708, 1774, 1776, 1800, 1977, and 1986, have originated from fissures on the outer flanks of the caldera.
The Piton de la Fournaise Volcano Observatory, one of several operated by the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, monitors this very active volcano.
PHOTO Copyrighted photo by Katia and Maurice Krafft, 1977 (published in SEAN Bulletin, 1977).
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