Niuafo'ou

Niuafo'ou ("Tin Can Island") is a low 8-km-wide island that forms the summit of a largely submerged basaltic shield volcano in the north central Lau Basin about 170 km W of the northern end of the Tofua volcanic arc. The circular island encloses a 5-km-wide caldera that is mostly filled by a lake whose bottom extends to below sea level. The inner walls of the caldera drop sharply to the lake, named Big Lake (or Vai Lahi), which contains several small islands and pyroclastic cones on its NE shore. Eruptions recorded since 1814, mostly from circumferential fissures on the west-to-south side of the island, have often damaged villages. A major eruption in 1946 forced evacuation of most of its 1,200 inhabitants.