Ambrym

island, Vanuatu

Also known as: Ambrim

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Also spelled:: Ambrim

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Ambrym, volcanic island of Vanuatu, southwestern Pacific Ocean. It has an area of 257 square miles (665 square km) and is known for its two active vents, Marum (4,167 feet [1,270 metres]) and Benbow (3,802 feet [1,159 metres]), which sit inside a caldera thought to have collapsed during a major eruption around 100 ce. Both cones were continuously active throughout the 20th and into the 21st century with many minor gas and ash eruptions and, in the 1980s and ’90s, lava flows. Volcanic activity in 1913–15, 1929, and 1951 was serious enough to warrant the temporary evacuation of most of the island’s population. The island produces copra. There are airstrips at Craig Cove in the west and at Uléi in the east.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Lorraine Murray.