Tavurvur Volcano (Rabaul)

PeaksEast New Britain, Rabaul,Papua New Guinea

A black cone on a drowned caldera in Papua New Guinea that buried a provincial capital in ash in 1994 and now warms birds' eggs.

September·Peaking now

May–Oct

The southeast trades flatten Simpson Harbour, so the dawn crossing is smooth and the cone stays clear all day.

Year-round The drowned caldera, the ring of green cones the Tolai call the Mother and her Daughters, and the black beach at the cone's foot are here every day of the year.

Tavurvur buried a town and killed almost nobody. When the cone erupted on 19 September 1994, together with Vulcan across the bay, wet ash up to 75 centimetres deep collapsed around 80 percent of the buildings in Rabaul. Only five people died, because some 30,000 had already walked out on nineteen hours of warning. East New Britain moved its capital to Kokopo, and parts of the old town still sit roof-deep in grey. The cone itself is modest, a few hundred metres of black scoria at the water's edge. What it stands on is not. Simpson Harbour, the calm blue bay in front of it, is a drowned caldera — the flooded collapse-scar of a far larger volcano, rimmed by green cones the Tolai call the Mother and her Daughters. You come to it by boat from Rabaul or Kokopo, the black cone growing out of the water ahead. Tavurvur last erupted on 29 August 2014, throwing ash some 15 kilometres up and punching a visible shockwave ring through the cloud. It has been quiet since, but not asleep: steam and sulphur drift from the crater, the alert level sits at the lowest of four stages, and the ground has been slowly swelling since 2024. With a guide you climb the loose grey slope to a rim that radiates heat and smells of eggs. Villagers dig scrubfowl eggs out of the ash the volcano keeps warm at its foot. Tavurvur and Vulcan stand on the same caldera ring, and they tend to erupt in pairs.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Go with a local guide and check the Rabaul Volcano Observatory's alert stage first — this is a live vent, and the climb closes whenever activity picks up.
The southeast trades from May to October give the calmest crossing — in the wet months the bay chops up and cloud sits on the cone all morning.
The black beach is far hotter than it looks — hot springs seep into the shallows, so test the sand and the water before you put a bare foot down.
Only Matupit villagers may dig the egg fields — watch from a distance, ask before you photograph anyone, and buy a few eggs rather than walking over the diggings.
Ash gets into everything — closed shoes, a dust mask and a sealed bag for your camera matter more here than a rain jacket.

Things to do

1
Cross the drowned caldera to the cone
The crossing starts at Matupit, the Tolai village closest to the cone, where outriggers and small open boats put out alongside the ones from Rabaul. Halfway over, the ring of green cones around the harbour lines up behind you and Tavurvur's bare grey slope fills the view ahead.
2
Climb the ash cone to its crater rim
With a guide, you work up loose grey scoria that slides back half a step for every step you take. At the top the rim gives off heat you can feel through your soles, the smell of sulphur is sharp, and the whole ring of cones opens out around the bay.
3
Meet the egg diggers on the hot black sand
From May to October, Matupit men spend their mornings shoulder-deep in pits dug into the volcano-warmed ash, lifting out scrubfowl eggs. Apart from the climb, it is the only thing that happens on this cone, and it goes on whether or not a boatload of visitors turns up.