Karkar

 island, volcano

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Karkar is a large oval-shaped volcanic island in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. About 25km long and 19km wide, it has an area of approx. 400km², and a population of about 50,000. It is located about 16km off the mainland coast of Papua New Guinea. It is dominated by the 1,839 m high summit of its caldera-topped volcano. The summit caldera of the Karkar volcano (Mt. Kunugui or Mt. Uluman) consists of an inner and an outer formation (3.2 km and 5.5 km across, respectively), with the inner caldera reaching a depth of over 300 m. The latest eruptions were in 1974-5 and 1979.

The first Europeans to visit the island were Willem Schouten and Jacob Le Maire in 1615-16; other western explorers who came were Tasman (1649) and Dampier (1699). Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay mentioned Karkar in his expedition diaries from the 1880s.