1580 Eruption of Billy Mitchell

Name: 1580 Eruption of Billy Mitchell
Start: 1580
Location: Billy Mitchell, Papua New Guinea

1580 · VEI 6

Billy Mitchell in Papua New Guinea erupted in 1580 with a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 6.

Where it erupted

Billy Mitchell, Papua New Guinea, with its other significant eruptions.

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The eruption

Date: 1580
Volcano: Billy Mitchell, pyroclastic shield
Country: Papua New Guinea
Volcanic Explosivity Index: 6, paroxysmal (eruption column over 25 km)
Location: 6.090° S, 155.225° E

The toll

The record gives no deaths, injuries or damage for this eruption.

What the record says

NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.

Billy Mitchell, a small pyroclastic shield immediately NE of Bagana volcano, has produced some of the largest Holocene eruptions in Papua New Guinea. The andesitic-to-dacitic volcano is truncated by a 2-km-wide caldera containing a shallow lake with a small island near its S shore. Two major explosive eruptions, one about 900 years ago and the other about 370 years ago, produced dacitic pyroclastic-fall deposits that cover most of the northern half of Bougainville Island. The younger eruption may have been responsible for formation of the nearly vertical, steep-walled summit caldera. Pyroclastic-flow and -surge deposits extend 25 km to the E coast of Bougainville Island. (reference #2432)

Every eruption in 1580 The 1500s Billy Mitchell Earthquakes near Billy Mitchell

Sources

Volcanoes and significant eruptions from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-09-24. Volcano numbers are the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program’s. NCEI event 6984.