Piton de la Fournaise, (aka Reunion), Reunion Island, Indian Ocean

Image by Pete Mouginis-Mark, University of Hawaii.

SIR-C image of Reunion Island obtained as Data Take 98.5. This image has the active volcano Piton de la Fournaise. The colors in the image are produced by displaying the L-band HH data in red, L-band HV data in green, and C-band HV data in blue.

Sunrise at Piton de la Fournaise in full eruption and lava flows down to the Indian Ocean

Piton de la Fournaise is also known as Reunion and is a twin shield volcano located in the western part of the Indian Ocean. The island of Reunion is made up of two volcanic mountains, Piton des Neiges which covers the central part of the island and Piton de la Fouranaise that is located on the eastern part of the island. These twin summits have been highly eroded over time. Piton de la Fournaise in full eruption. Over time there has been two catastrophic eruptions, the first resulting in a nested caldera. Within this caldera formed a cone called Moyen which suffered a similar fate and left a circular caldera measuring 4.3 miles (7 km) in diameter. Dolomieu crater showing Aa lava.

Today a twin volcano primarily built up of lava is located in the western portion of the caldera. Many parasitic cones exist within the two calderas. The summit of Piton de la Fouranaise in 1961 consisted of three craters Bory, Velain, and Dolomieu. As shown in the pictures above and below Dolomieu continued to be active in an August 1986 eruption.

Dual vent eruption within Dolomieu and showing lava braiding down to the Indian Ocean.

Dolomieu crater with Pahoehoe lava in foreground.

More images of Reunion Island.

Neumann van Padang M., 1963, Arabia and the Indian Ocean. Catalog of Active Volcanoes of the World, Rome: IAVCEI, 16, p.39-41.

Dr. R. B. Trombley, Southwest Volcano Research Centre, Phoenix, AZ

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