January 10, 1878 Eruption of Yasur

Name: January 10, 1878 Eruption of Yasur
Start: 1878-01-10
Location: Yasur, Vanuatu

January 10, 1878 · VEI 3

Yasur in Vanuatu erupted on January 10, 1878 with a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 3. It caused a tsunami.

Where it erupted

Yasur, Vanuatu, with its other significant eruptions.

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The eruption

Date: January 10, 1878
Volcano: Yasur, stratovolcano
Country: Vanuatu
Volcanic Explosivity Index: 3, moderate to large (eruption column 3 to 15 km)
Tsunami: Yes: the tsunami it caused
Location: 19.532° S, 169.447° E

The toll

Damage: Limited (under about $1 million) with the tsunamis, mudflows and other effects it caused

Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.

What the record says

NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.

Reference #414:

1878, January 10 at 10:00 [local time]. There was a strong earthquake on Tanna Island; the subsequent tremors lasted four weeks. A new pit of crater formed near the "sulphur bay" [in Sapper's unlikely opinion, this was the result of a volcanic explosion].

Reference #79:

1878, January 10. New Hebrides. Quake and eruption, new crater Yasowa volcano, Tanna Island, 19.5 S, 169.4 E... Sapper does not mention quake. Milne and Sieberg do not mention eruption.

Reference #1686:

Possibly the largest tsunami of this type occurred on 10 January 1878 in association with an eruption of Yasour Volcano in the New Hebrides; formation of a new crater and marked uplift accompanied a strong earthquake, with an attendant tsunami 17 m high (FUCHS, 1879); a second earthquake and eruption, with a smaller tsunami, occurred a month later. but little is known in detail either about the earthquakes or the eruptions (see CARNEY et al., 1979)

Other significant eruptions of Yasur

Every eruption in 1878 The 1800s Yasur Earthquakes near Yasur This day in weather history

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 4513.