it was depleted. It is also home to the kauri and tamanu trees. There has been extensive logging, but most of the area is recovering, and efforts are underway to try to make the industry sustainable. With European Union support, there is a protected Happy Lands Kauri Reserve. Climate Geology Erromango, like most other islands of the Vanuatu archipelago, is volcanic in origin. It is composed of basalt and andesite from the late Miocene-Recent periods and is situated along a Pliocene-Recent volcanic chain that is moving to the north-northwest. Most of the island is fringed with a platform of uplifted coral reef limestone dating from the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. Volcanism Erromango was formed during a prolonged period of volcanic activity took place between 6-1 Ma. The island is an ancient underwater volcano that has been raised 100-300m above sea level by tectonic uplift, forming a plateau on which stand three sets of eroded volcanic cones in the centre, north and east of the island. The centre is divided into two volcanoes; Mount Melkum (758m) to the west, and Nompun Umpan (802m) to the east. In the north of the island, Mount William (682m) is a strombolian cone with a caldera 6 km wide and around 600m deep. The eastern peninsula that forms Traitor's Head, north of Cook's Bay on the east coast, is the youngest volcanic formation on the island and consists of four stratovolcanoes (Urap, Ulenu, Rantop and Wahous). A submarine volcano between the peninsula and nearby Vetemanu last erupted in 1881. Population Erromango's population at the last census in 2009 was 1,959. The annual population growth rate is 2.2%, and there are a total of 325 private households on the island. The largest villages are Dillons Bay (Upogkor), Potnarvin and Ipota. Languages Erromango was linguistically diverse prior to European contact. Since contact, however, Erromango has lost between 67% and 83% of its original languages. The island "has the dubious honour of having suffered the greatest amount of linguistic devastation in the region of Oceania outside of Australia", according to Pacific linguist Terry Crowley. While the original distribution of languages is not well documented, there were originally at least four distinct Erromangan languages: Enyau/Yocu, Ura (also known as Aryau), Utaha (also known as Etiyo or Ifo) and Sorug/Sye (also spelt Sie or Siye). Sorug and Utaha are now extinct and only a few elderly Ura speakers remain. These