Yasur is the only active volcano on Tanna Island. Tanna is located in the southern New Hebrides island arc which is a chain of Late Cenozoic volcanism that defines the convergent plate margin between the North Fiji Basin and the Australian plate.
Yasur volcano is small tuff cone and attracts a small tourist business.
Its continuous activity has been reported even before it was observed by Capitan Cook in 1774. Tanna island is populated and includes the Jon Frum Cargo Cult . The intent of the project was two-fold. One, a goal of the project was to use FTIR as a remote sensing tool and further its development as a means of measuring chemical flux rates from active volcanoes. Two, to establish baseline emission rates of several gases as a means of monitoring this potentially dangerous system.