Billy Mitchell (volcano)
Billy Mitchell is a dormant pyroclastic shield volcano in central Bougainville, just north-east of the Bagana Volcano in Papua New Guinea. It is a small pyroclastic shield truncated by a 2 km wide caldera filled by a crater lake. It is named after Billy Mitchell, a 20th-century United States Army general who is sometimes regarded as the father of the United States Air Force.
Background
The last two major eruptions were in 1580 AD ± 20 years and about 1030 AD. They were among the largest Holocene eruptions in Papua New Guinea. Both were explosive eruptions with a Volcanic Explosivity Index of at least 5. The 1580 AD ± 20 years eruption produced pyroclastic flows and probably formed its caldera. The second of these eruptions likely had an effect on worldwide temperature, lowering it by 0.2-0.3 degrees celsius for a year or two after the event. The ignimbrite deposit from that eruption, which had a VEI of 6, extends from the caldera to the coast, and its volume is around.The volcano is considered dormant as its last eruption was over 350 years ago.
Ice core data from the Law Dome ice core in Antarctica shows abundant volcanic glass from an extremely volumous erutption in the mid 1550's. There is some evidence that the Billy Mitchell volcano might be implicated in this euption. However, there is a large discrepancy in calendrical age equivalent. The glass shards, while similar in composition to Billy Mitchell, have a wide range of Silica content. More research is needed on the petrology of Billy Mitchell lava content to implicate this volcano to the mid 1550's eruption.