{"id":680832,"date":"2026-05-19T13:10:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T13:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/680832\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T13:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T13:10:13","slug":"undersea-volcano-erupts-in-papua-new-guineas-bismarck-sea-prompting-tsunami-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/680832\/","title":{"rendered":"Undersea volcano erupts in Papua New Guinea’s Bismarck Sea prompting tsunami concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

A volcano is erupting under the ocean in the Bismarck Sea, prompting warnings of possible tsunamis from authorities as ash and smoke bellow into the sky.<\/p>\n

Papua New Guinea authorities have warned of falling pumice, ash, unpredictable swells and turbulent currents in the area near the eruption of the provisionally-named Titan Ridge Volcano.<\/p>\n

Satellites have captured the event unfold from space, while seafarers in the area have seen it unfold.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Kennedy Masis took in the spectacle from the fishing boat he was working on. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

One fisherman, Kennedy Masis, was searching for tuna when he “saw smoke coming out of the sea”, he told the ABC.<\/p>\n

“Twelve years as a fisherman I’ve never seen anything like that \u2026 it’s scary.<\/p>\n

“It sounds like thunder and the sea smells like metal burning.”<\/p>\n

He said the next day he saw plenty of dead fish near the reef which was like a “boiling spring”.<\/p>\n

He warned other fishermen in the region to be cautious in the area as the eruption continued.<\/p>\n

Steve Saunders, the principal geodetic surveyor at the Rabaul Volcano Observatory, told ABC’s Pacific Beat localised tsunami activity was possible.<\/p>\n

“We could have some more intense explosive activity, in which case we may get just small tsunamis,” Mr Saunders said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“That would cause just small tsunamis because it’s 100 kilometres at least to the nearest land.”<\/p>\n

He added that the ocean in the area is about 500 to 800 metres deep.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Experts were watching the eruption closely despite its remote location. (Supplied: Kennedy Masis)<\/p>\n

He said that while undersea eruptions had happened before, this one was showing some unique characteristics.<\/p>\n

“What’s unusual about this is that it’s much more energetic, it looks as though … a cone is probably building underneath,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We are getting pumice actually reaching the surface … so it looks as though we may have a vent at, or very near the surface.”<\/p>\n

PNG’s Mineral Resources Authority (MRA) said that the volcano was active along a 5km stretch of ocean, but regular satellite monitoring had been hampered by cloud cover in recent days.<\/p>\n

A magnitude-5.4 earthquake was recorded near the site on Monday.<\/p>\n

Before the eruption authorities recorded a number of quakes in the area, including six on May 8.<\/p>\n

Mr Saunders said that any toxic fumes from the eruption were not blowing toward populated areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A volcano is erupting under the ocean in the Bismarck Sea, prompting warnings of possible tsunamis from authorities…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45957,328344,328345,167330,135717,43,44,27284,328349,39643,31904,328346,41,39,42,40,277375,328348,328347,223889,120571],"class_list":["post-680832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-ash","tag-bismarck-sea","tag-bismarck-sea-volcano","tag-eruption","tag-fishermen","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-papua-new-guinea","tag-pumice","tag-reef","tag-smoke","tag-titan-ridge-volcano","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-tuna","tag-undersea","tag-volcanic","tag-volcanic-eruption","tag-volcano"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}